Evolution
by ZVArmy
Summary: After Hunter Helmsley saved Stephanie from being killed by Nicole Reigns, they moved to Barbados so that she could recover both physically and mentally. The only option for Hunter was to leave his niece in charge of their empire, despite her inexperience. What will happen when they return? Will present business problems and past revelations tear the Helmsley family apart?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note:_

 _This story is a sequel to Avengement. If you haven't read that already, please consider doing so before starting this story as it will probably make things easier to understand._

* * *

 _Warren City Police Department_

The nameplate on the sturdy wooden door drew a hint of a smile from Ronda Helmsley, albeit a sarcastic one. "Sheriff Melina Perez, Warren City Police Department," she mumbled, reading aloud to herself. "Sheriff. What a fucking joke." Without bothering to knock, she forcefully pushed the door open, sending it crashing loudly into a desk. As she marched into the office, Ronda saw that Melina was in the middle of a meeting with one of her officers. Melina looked annoyed at the rude intrusion, not that Ronda gave a damn. Melina was on the payroll of the Helmsley organisation, so there was nothing to fear.

"Don't worry about knocking," Melina said. "Just barge in. I'll pretend I don't mind."

"Then I'll pretend I don't mind being summoned down here like you're someone who actually fucking matters," Ronda snapped back. "What do you want? I have a business to run."

The young officer who was sitting in front of Melina's desk sniggered at that, drawing more ire from the Sheriff. "Leave us," she ordered him with a dismissive hand gesture towards the door. "We'll continue this later."

The officer stood to leave, but Ronda made sure to obstruct him. Glaring at him, she said, "That's a nasty attitude problem you got there."

"Looks to me like the attitude problem is yours, Ms. Rousey," he replied, hoping that he would push her buttons by remaining so calm in the face of her anger.

"It's Helmsley now," Ronda snarled, stepping out of his way, but continuing to glare at him as he walked past her.

When the door closed behind him, Melina gestured to the chair that he had vacated. "Nice job, Ronda. Why don't you keep things subtle?"

"Subtlety's not really my thing," Ronda said, taking the offered seat and relaxing into it as if she owned the place, which, in a manner of speaking, she did.

"No shit," Melina replied. "I got a city full of bodies on my hands and witnesses coming forward reporting gunshots, hangings, warehouse explosions, car chases. You do realise what's going to happen if the FBI show up here and start digging into this department and what goes on in this city?"

Ronda shrugged offhandedly. "I doubt there will be any more killing. The way I hear it, there are none of Reigns' people left to be killed. Whoever was taking them out was quite thorough." Payroll or not, Ronda wasn't going to sit in a police station and openly admit that she and her people were responsible for the series of brutal murders that had been carried out over the last few weeks.

"Right," Melina said, going along with the charade. She knew what was best for both her health and her financial situation, not to mention the fact that she was sleeping with Seth Rollins, who was one of the higher ups in the Helmsley organisation. Any kind of meaningful relationship was of course impossible for them. "You can speak freely in my office, Ronda. And look, I know it's been a tough time for you, what with what they did to Stephanie and all. I can't imagine..."

Ronda exploded out of her chair and slammed her fist down hard on Melina's desk. "Don't you fucking dare talk to me about that," she screamed, going almost nose to nose with the Sheriff.

"Calm down," Melina said quietly, visibly intimidated. "I'm not trying to... I'm just saying it must be hard to deal with being the one in charge now. It must have came out of the blue for you when Hunter and Stephanie said they were leaving. Please, sit back down."

Ronda continued to glare at Melina for a moment, but then retook her seat, sighing as she sat down. Some of the anger seemed to leave her, to be replaced by sadness. The door opened again, and a different officer walked in. "Everything okay, ma'am? I heard shouting."

"Everything's fine, Layfield. Close the door."

Ronda waited for the door to close again. When she spoke, she sounded withdrawn, troubled by the memories of she was describing. "You know what's hard? Hearing your aunt wake up in the night, screaming in terror. That's what's hard. Seeing someone you've loved for so long crying all the time. Seeing someone who used to be so strong look so weak. That's what's hard. Honestly, I'm glad that they decided to retire and move to Barbados. Aunt Steph just couldn't be involved in this life anymore, and I understand that after what she went through. It was time for them to get out, so they got out, and they're happy over there. The Helmsley business will go on though; don't worry about that. I promised them. They made me promise."

"I didn't doubt it," Melina said, relieved that the atmosphere in the office was now a little calmer. She knew that Ronda was talking about the manufacture and distribution of Meth, not the food processing company that Helmsley used as a front business.

"So why did you ask me to come down here?"

"First off, to tell you that the FBI are starting to take a keen interest in Warren City, following the recent spate of violence. Secondly, I wanted to give you this. Thought it might interest you." She pulled a sheet of paper out of one of the trays on her desk and held it out to Ronda.

"What is it?" Ronda asked, making no motion to take it.

"Just read it," Melina sighed, wondering why everything had to be such hard work with Ronda. It hadn't been that way with Hunter, but then Hunter knew how to conduct business professionally, whether it was illegal or not. On the other hand, Ronda was a psychopath, plain and simple, as far as Melina was concerned, and having to deal with her was a frightening prospect. That was the the reason that the sheet of paper existed.

Leaning forward, Ronda impatiently snatched it from Melina and then leaned back in the chair to read it. Melinda said nothing as she watched Ronda read and then cover her mouth with her hand and close her eyes tightly. It was more of a reaction than she had expected. A few seconds later, Ronda removed the hand from her mouth and opened her eyes, which were now filled with tears, again surprising Melina. "Is this for real?" Ronda managed to ask.

"Of course. I wouldn't mess with you like that," Melina said. "Whether you believe it or not, I have Helmsley's interests as my first priority. You're the number one now, and we need to work together. Take this is a... What would you call it? A demonstration of my intent?"

Ronda was stunned into silence, with so many emotions hitting her all at once. According to the sheet of paper, Melina had somehow gotten just over six months taken off of Shane McMahon's five year prison sentence, and he was now due to be released the next day. When Shane had been caught red handed in the act of burning down a warehouse belonging to a rival organisation, there had been nothing that even Melina could do to keep him out of prison. It was obvious from the expression on Melina's face she thought she was doing Ronda a huge favour by getting Shane released because he was the brother of her adoptive aunt, and someone who would now be incredibly useful in running the organisation with the absence of Hunter and Stephanie.

There was no way the sheriff could know the truth. In fact, no one aside from Shane and Ronda knew the truth, which was that they were in a relationship with each other. They had both known that Hunter and Stephanie would have found it almost impossible to accept that they were together, so they had kept it a secret. They wouldn't have been able to understand that Ronda didn't look at Shane as an uncle and he didn't look at her as a niece. There was no true blood relationship between them. The significant age difference alone would have been something that Hunter would have objected to, but Ronda didn't care about that kind of thing. Age was just a number; a meaningless one at that. As far as both she and Shane were concerned, they were just two people who worked for the same organisation, and had fallen in love with each other.

For almost four and a half years while Shane had been locked up, Ronda had felt like there was a part of her missing. Visiting him seemed to make it worse, if anything. Saying goodbye was always heartbreaking. The last few weeks in particular had been hell, with Hunter and Stephanie also gone, leaving her with only her security detail for so-called company. Revenge had been the only thing that she had been living for; in the form of wiping out the rest of the people who had been a part of the organisation that had once been run by Roman and Nicole Reigns. Returning to what, by her standards at least, could be called a normal life was something that she had been dreading. Getting through each day would have been torture. Now though, Shane was getting out...

"Are you okay?" Melina asked, bringing Ronda out of her thoughts. "You seem like you're having a breakdown or something. Hardly what I expected."

"No," Ronda said, trying to shake it off as best she could in front of Melina. Displaying weakness of any kind wasn't on. She was the boss now. She represented the name Helmsley. "I'm okay. It's just a big surprise. You've done something I won't forget today, Melina. Do you understand me?"

"Remember that the next time an envelope comes my way."

Melina's tone indicated that this was where the meeting needed to end. Recognising that, Ronda stood and said, "Trust me, you'll be looked after." With that, she headed for the door.

"Ronda?"

Ronda's hand was on the door handle, but she stopped and turned back to face the Sheriff. "What?"

"Stop killing people. If you don't, we're all going to go down."

With a slight nod in acknowledgment, Ronda left the office and closed the door gently behind her; something which Melina didn't fail to notice. "You better be able to keep her under control Shane, or we're all fucked," she muttered to herself.


	2. Chapter 2

_Warren City Penitentiary_

Fresh, warm evening air had never smelled so good to Shane McMahon. During his prison sentence he had been allowed into the yard for exercise almost every day, so it wasn't that he hadn't experienced fresh air for a long time. It was different today because it smelled of freedom. After nearly four and a half years, he was walking out of the gates of Warren City Penitentiary. He was a free man. Why his sentence had suddenly been reduced was a mystery to him, but he honestly didn't care what the reason was. His time inside was behind him; that was all that mattered. His release could have happened a lot sooner, if he had taken any of the numerous deals that the cops had offered him. Taking a deal would have meant becoming a rat though, and Shane would rather have spent the rest of his life inside than sell out a single member of the organisation he was a proud member of. The name Helmsley meant too much to him to even consider selling out. Loyalty was everything in this life. Now, he supposed, he wasn't just a member of Helmsley, he was the second in command. His girl, his secret lover, the love of his life, was now the boss.

Ronda's rise to power had been predestined ever since Hunter and Stephanie had decided to adopt her, but no one could have imagined that it would have happened this soon. It had taken Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner to make that happen, by having Stephanie raped and tortured in a revenge attack against Hunter. Shane would have loved nothing more than to have been able to strangle Scott Steiner with his bare hands and watch the life drain out of him. Of course, that would have been impossible from in prison, and in any event both Steiner and Nicole were already dead, both of them shot with a sniper rifle by Ronda, before Shane was even told about what had happened.

It took a lot to make a man like Shane cry, but sitting across a table at visitation time and hearing Hunter tell him about what his sister had been put through had done it. All Hunter had been able to say was that it had been taken care of. Although Shane had known what that meant, he had wanted, needed, more. The next time Ronda had come to visit him, he had seen in her eyes that she had been the one to do it. Something had changed. Ronda had always been a killer, and she was proud of it. On that day though, there had been another even greater level of intensity in her eyes that he had never seen before. "They're all going to pay, baby," she had whispered to him. And so they had, in time.

After Hunter and Stephanie had left for Barbados and retirement, every single member of the Reigns organisation that hadn't been wise enough to flee Warren City had been hunted down and killed at the hands of Ronda and her men. Her promise had been fulfilled. While Shane was of course glad that those responsible for Stephanie's suffering had been dealt with, he was also concerned. Helmsley had to go on. Stephanie had been the one to emphatically stress that to Shane, when she had eventually felt up to visiting him herself. It was then that he had learned that she and Hunter would be leaving, and Ronda would be taking over. Neither Hunter or Stephanie knew about his relationship with Ronda, but they had still intended him to be the new second in command. "When you get out of here, I need you to take care of my niece, Shane, please," Stephanie had almost begged of him. "She thinks she's invincible, but she's not. None of us are. She'll also need help with the business side of things. I wish I could stay and train her some more, but I can't. I just can't. I have to get away from here."

"I'll take care of her," Shane had promised his tearful sister. "And I'll help her rebuild Helmsley. What you and Hunter have built will no fall apart. I promise you that."

Those were his missions now: Take care of Ronda, and help to rebuild the Helmsley business. This was day one. Recognising one of the Helmsley trademark black SUV's with tinted windows which was parked nearby, Shane walked over to it and opened the passenger side door.

"Am I really supposed to call you boss now?" Brock Lesnar grinned, offering his hand to Shane.

Shaking hands enthusiastically, Shane said, "Let's stick with brother, huh?" Part of him was disappointed that it wasn't Ronda who had driven to pick him up. It wasn't really a surprise though; she was the boss now after all.

Shane got into the SUV and Brock pulled away as he said, "It's good to see you, man. Did you know we renamed the bar Hunter's? It seemed like the right thing to do."

The main front business for Helmsley was a food processing company, which had until recently been run by Stephanie. The offices of what was supposed to be a legitimate concern were hardly the place to hold meetings to discuss the affairs of a meth manufacturing and distribution operation, so Hunter had also purchased a bar, one of the most expensive in the city, and he'd had a private boardroom of sorts constructed in the back. This room, referred to as the back room, was where all of the important decisions were made and sometimes voted on if it was deemed to be necessary.

Getting no response from Shane, Lesnar had continued, "Everyone's waiting there for you; Ronda's closed the place to the public today and organised everyone to come out for a celebration. It kind of got started without you though. Half of them were already drunk when I left to come get you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Shane laughed. Seeing the rest of the guys would be great, but Ronda was all he could really focus on. For the first time in four and a half years, he would be able hold his girl, make love to his girl. ""Put your foot down, man," he ordered.

* * *

 _Hunter's Bar_

The party at Hunter's had spilled outside onto the deck area in front of the bar. The excessively loud, pounding dance music and raucous merriment stood no chance of attracting attention from the police as it would at any other establishment; Sheriff Perez would see to that. Standing alone near the bar's entrance with a bottle of beer in her hand, Ronda wasn't really focused on what was going on around her. Having only had a couple of drinks, she wasn't drunk, unlike almost everyone else. Waiting for Shane to arrive was eating away at her. She wouldn't be able to relax and enjoy herself until her man was there with her. One thing she had decided for certain was that she wasn't going to be keeping their relationship a secret anymore. She was the boss now, so she didn't have to justify herself to anyone. Shane was not just her second in command, he was also her partner in life, and people needed to respect him as such.

Ronda was startled out of her thoughts by Seth Rollins tripping and crashing into the table that she was standing next to. The table toppled over, sending several pints of beer crashing to the floor, fortunately not splashing Ronda as she managed to jump back and out of the way in time. "Fucking hell. Sorry, boss," he slurred at her. "Tripped on something."

"Yeah, your own feet, you fucking idiot," Ronda giggled. Glancing around, she saw her people enjoying themselves and unwinding. It was definitely needed after the past few weeks, which had been intense to say the least for everyone who worked for Helmsley, in any capacity. Aside from Ronda, Alexander Rusev's wife, Lana, was the only woman who now worked for the meth operation. They were both sitting at a table with Wade Barrett and his wife, Paige. Next, Ronda's gaze settled on Paul Heyman. Paul wasn't the kind man that Ronda liked to have around, but she recognised that he was necessary as she knew almost nothing about running a legitimate business herself, and someone had been required to take over the management of the food processing company following Stephanie's departure.

Even more of an irritation to Ronda were the three young, scantily clad women who were surrounding Paul and a couple of other guys who were staff from the factory. The women were all giggling away and drinking as they fawned over the men, particularly Paul. Ronda despised women like them; women who in her opinion wanted to nothing more than to look pretty and be taken care of by someone else, usually a rich, older man. She hated them so much that she had come up with a name for them. "What are those fucking DNB's doing here?" she snarled at Seth. DNB: Do Nothing Bitch.

Seth had picked up the table and was now crouched down, trying to do something about the bigger pieces of the broken beer glasses. Sensing the danger in her voice, he stood up and tried to calm her down before she exploded. "The guys are having a good time, that's all. Let them enjoy themselves." It was a hopeful suggestion rather than an attempt to give Ronda an order.

For a long moment, Ronda continued to stare menacingly at the women, before a smile spread across her face and she turned back to look at Seth. Punching him on the shoulder, she said, "Relax, would you? I'm fucking with you."

"Sorry, boss," Seth said, pretending that they both didn't know that she had been about to go over there and glass one of the women with her bottle. With that, he moved past her into the bar to fetch more drinks.

Ronda downed her beer and set the bottle down on the table. She was about to follow Seth inside to get another, but at that moment a black SUV pulled up in front of the bar, the driver repeatedly blasting the horn. The arrival got everyone's attention within seconds, and they all walked over to form a welcoming committee.

Shane stepped out of the SUV to a loud cheer of delight from those awaiting him. He was almost mobbed as people wanted to exchange handshakes and hugs with him along with their greetings and expressions of delight that he was back at last. One person was noticeably absent from the crowd. As he embraced Wade Barrett, Shane tried to peer over the top of the crowd to see where she was.

Ronda felt herself burning with desire and her hands shaking slightly as she locked eyes with her man. After biting her bottom lip suggestively, she turned and walked into the bar, knowing that Shane would follow as soon as he could.

"I need to go speak to Ronda, guys," Shane said, making his excuses as quickly as he could. "I'll be right back out, and I'll bring more beer!"

Everyone cheered loudly and Shane received several slaps on the back as he made his way through the crowd. When he walked into the bar, the bartender was the only person in sight. Shane looked at him and he smiled and gestured towards the open door to the back room with his head.

Nodding his thanks, Shane walked across the bar towards the open door, noticing that the blinds at the windows had been closed. He could smell Ronda's perfume lingering in the air and he breathed in deeply, savoring it. It only served to fire him up even more for what was to come.

When Shane walked into the room and closed the door behind him, Ronda couldn't hold herself back; almost throwing herself at him. Without exchanging a word, they began kissing passionately, almost frantically, and Ronda went right to work on unbuttoning his jeans. "Oh, baby, I missed you," she gasped out between kisses.

"I'm back, and I'm never going away again," Shane promised her as he roughly pulled her top off and tossed is aside. "I'm back, and I love you."

"Show me," Ronda pleaded. "I need you to show me."

That wasn't a problem to Shane. Grabbing her under her ass, he lifted her onto the table and laid her down. Wasting no time on ceremony, he pulled down her jean shorts and panties. "Fucking beautiful," he groaned, as if the sight was almost so good that it was painful.

Meanwhile, Ronda had used both hands to pull his boxers down and was now gently stroking his rock hard cock. "Don't tease me, baby. Just fuck me. Please."

"Yes, boss," Shane said, not caring in the least that what he had to give wouldn't last long at all; not after four and a half years without sex.

As he entered her and began pounding hard, Ronda arched her back slightly, craving the ultimate and unachievable penetration. Almost as soon as he had started, Shane felt like he was about to unload. There was very little he could do to hold himself back, and he realised that Ronda already knew that as she breathed, "It's okay, baby."

With that, Shane let go and exploded into her with an ecstatic groan. It had been a minute at the absolute most. Feeling embarrassed, he pulled out and said, "I'm sorry."

Pushing herself up to a sitting position, Ronda said, "Sshhh. There's nothing to apologise for. I needed that just as much as you did. Come here."

Leaning down, Shane pulled her into a tight embrace. "I meant what I said, Ronda. I love you and I'm not going away from you again, ever."

"I know," Ronda whispered into his ear. "I love you too. We run this city now, and no one's ever going to change that, no matter how hard they try."


	3. Chapter 3

_Marina Heights Hotel_

The Marina Heights Hotel had once been Roman Reigns' pet project. Upon his arrival in Warren City, he had purchased the biggest hotel in the city, but he had also decided to build his own; wanting this new project to be bigger and even more luxurious, a centrepiece for his empire. That was until Hunter Helmsley had decided to put a bullet in the back of his head. A lot had changed in Warren City since that moment, including the ownership of Marina Heights. It was now Helmsley property. When Hunter had first told Ronda that he had acquired it, without mentioning exactly how he had done so, her first instinct had been to burn it to the ground. Her reasoning was that the hotel, which had still been under construction at the time, was where Stephanie had been held captive by Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner. Ronda had wanted the hotel gone, taking the horrible memories with it.

Hunter had delicately pointed out to his niece that a rash, instinctive reaction such as that when she took charge of the organisation could prove be not only her downfall but also the downfall of everything that the name Helmsley stood for. Furthermore, burning the hotel down wouldn't change what had happened there; it would only cost Helmsley the chance to own the biggest and most prestigious hotel in the city, which would bring in another huge revenue stream for them. The fact that Shane McMahon had been given five years inside for torching a warehouse and yet Ronda wanted to go ahead and try to burn down an entire hotel was also something that Hunter had pointed out.

Cooler heads had prevailed and now, a couple of months after that conversation, the hotel was open for its first day of business. Ronda knew little about how to run a hotel, and she hadn't bothered with pretending to care. Instead she had promoted Steve Blackman from manager of the much smaller hotel at the golf club that Helmsley owned to manager of Marina Heights. "Simple problem, simple solution," she had said to Shane, and he had agreed.

"You need an office somewhere," Shane had said. "Why don't you take a suite for yourself? It would have to be the top floor of course. Only the best for the Queen."

"I'm no fucking Queen," Ronda had giggled at him.

"Sure you are," Shane had replied, kissing her gently on the forehead. "You're my Queen."

There had been no more discussion about the hotel suite; Ronda had done as Shane had advised and had a suite and an office built for herself on the top floor. This was to be her place of work by day, in her new role in charge of all things Helmsley, especially the meth manufacturing and distribution operation. The official story was that Ronda was the hotel's manager and Blackman was Assistant Manager, hence the need for her to have an office on the premises.

There had been much fanfare and celebration the previous night at the hotel's grand opening party. Alcohol had been consumed at an incredible rate, which was why Ronda had spent her first morning in her new office, nursing a hangover. Now it was early afternoon, and although the hangover was starting to fade, so was her patience. Listening to the woman who was sitting in front of her desk was really starting to grate on her nerves. If Hunter hadn't given her a lecture before he left on how important it could be to have the public on Helmsley's side, she wouldn't even have agreed to seeing the woman at all.

"I just didn't know where else to turn," the middle aged Hispanic woman said, for the third time since the meeting had started.

"Yeah, I get it," Ronda sighed. "Your husband was killed by one of Roman Reigns' men. You think he saw something that they didn't want him to see while he was walking to work down at the docks. You've told me twice already, and I'm sorry to hear it. I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me, so why don't we skip ahead to the part where you tell me why you're here?"

The woman's eyes filled with tears. "Ms. Helmsley, I have a family. I have two young sons. Without my Pablo, we have no income and no money. I can't find work anywhere and we can't possibly make rent on our house. We'll be out on the streets within weeks. Mr. Helmsley was a very generous man, everyone knows that."

Ronda's expression hardened and there was now an edge to her voice. "You're here to ask me to give you money?"

"No ma'am," the woman clarified quickly. "I don't want charity. I'm looking for work. You've opened this enormous, beautiful hotel. You must have a need for waitresses or cleaners? I'll take anything you have, please?"

"Sorry," Ronda said, barely pausing. "We've filled all the positions here. There's nothing I can give you."

"Please," the woman begged, holding her hands out towards Ronda as if she was praying. Tears began to flow down her cheeks. "Please, there has to be something. If not for me, help me for the sake of for my sons. I can't have my boys living on the streets."

Ronda's primary concern was to stop the crying and get the woman out of the office. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with her hand, sensing her headache threatening to return. Then an idea came to her. "Are you a good cleaner?" she asked reluctantly, still with her eyes closed.

"Yes ma'am," the woman replied enthusiastically. "I've had cleaning jobs before. I work very hard and..."

"Enough," Ronda said forcefully, holding up a hand to silence her. "I can't listen to any more babbling. You're frying my fucking brain. What did you say your name is again?"

"Camila."

Ronda opened her eyes again and saw the hope written all over Camila's face. It would have been difficult for even the most hard-hearted of people to throw her out of the office. "Alright Camila, here's what I'm thinking: I recently inherited a very large house where my partner and I live. Our last maid recently left us, and I need a full time replacement. So, how about it? Can you cook?"

Camila's eyed widened and her mouth dropped open slightly. "Yes... Yes I can cook. I'm a good cook," she stammered. "You want to hire me as your maid?"

"That's what I'm offering you. Of course, my people will check you and your story out. If they find out you've lied to me here today, or you try and fuck with me in any way while you're in my home..." Ronda let her voice trail off, then tilted her head sideways slightly and raised her eyebrows. The message was perfectly clear: Your sons will find themselves without their other parent.

"You won't regret this, Ms. Helmsley. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I'm not lying to you. I'm not stupid. Why would I do that? They call you Angel de la Muerte for a reason."

"They call me what now?" Ronda asked, her interest genuinely piqued for the first time.

"Angel de la Muerte. It means Angel of Death. Your reputation precedes you, Ms. Helmsley."

Ronda liked that a lot. Smiling, she said, "I like you Camila. Someone will be in touch with you shortly. As for your financial situation, let's say five grand a month, yes? That should keep you out of the shit."

It took Ronda another few minutes to get the tearful Camila to stop thanking her and leave the office. When she figured that the coast was clear, Ronda walked out of the office and handed a folded up sheet of paper to one of the three meatheads that were lingering in the reception area. Security was a lot tighter now; Nicole Reigns had taught that lesson well enough. The sheet of paper had Camila's name, address and phone number written on it.

"Check her out," Ronda ordered. "Have someone spend a couple of days following her, and look into her background too. She says she's recently lost her husband and is desperate for work. If she checks out, I'm going to be give her a job as a maid at home."

"Yes, boss."

Next, Ronda turned to her receptionist. "Lana, no more visitors today. Any more of that shit, I'll kill someone. Probably myself."

"Yes, Ms. Helmsley."

Ronda had been about to turn to go back into her office, but she changed her mind. "In fact, fuck it, I've had enough for today. Call downstairs and have my car brought around. I'm out of here."

Nodding, Lana picked up her phone.

* * *

Flanked by her three man security detail, Ronda marched confidently through the lobby of Marina Heights, catching the eye of almost everyone in sight but not bothering to speak to any of her guests. She was heading for the main entrance; her car now parked right outside, ready and waiting.

"Ms. Helmsley! Ms. Helmsley!" One of the hotel's three female receptionists was trying to beckon her over to the desk.

Sighing, Ronda reluctantly headed over there, wondering what else could possibly get on her nerves before she managed to get home. A tall, dark skinned, bald headed man dressed in a very expensive looking grey business suit had been talking to the receptionist who had called out to Ronda. As she approached, he turned to face her. Smiling broadly, he held his hand out for her to shake.

"Ronda Helmsley. Nice to meet you. I'm Dwayne Johnson, Roman Reigns' cousin."


	4. Chapter 4

"Can I get you a drink?" Ronda walked over to a small table in the corner of her office, on top of which sat several bottles of various liquors and four shot glasses.

"I'll have whatever you're having," Dwayne Johnson replied easily.

Ronda poured herself a healthy shot of whisky, thinking of Hunter as she did so. Until Hunter and Stephanie had left for Barbados, Ronda had rarely touched alcohol while she was working. It now felt like a tribute of sorts to her uncle to start a meeting with a shot of whisky, as that had always been his custom. She poured a second shot, handed it to Johnson and gestured for him to take a seat in front of her desk.

Roman Reigns' cousin showing up unannounced had been a shock to her. His existence had been no secret to the Helmsley organisation, given that he was one of the most influential bosses in Florida, which was where Roman had also operated from before moving to Warren City. Ronda knew that in Florida, Johnson was known as The Rock. Looking at his appearance, she didn't find it hard to figure out why. Even dressed in a suit, it was obvious that he was in fantastic shape. The burning question on her mind was why was he in Warren City and in her hotel? Revenge for his cousin's murder had at first seemed to be the most logical explanation, but he wasn't giving off that kind of vibe at all; not yet at least. If anything, he actually seemed closer to the friendly side of professional.

Diplomacy was something that Hunter had repeatedly talked to her about prior to his departure. The importance of attempting to get along with other bosses and resolving matters without resorting to violence was something he couldn't have stressed any more forcefully. It had felt like he was trying to drill it into her head, and she had to admit that it seemed to have worked. Already, she found herself being mindful of how she spoke to her visitor.

Hunter had admitted to her that he'd realised that the truth of the matter was that mistakes had been made by both sides when Roman and his people had arrived in Warren City. Two huge egos had collided, and rather than working out some kind of arrangement where both organisations could mutually prosper, neither man had wanted to concede any ground. Even when Roman had eventually made an offer to divide the city between the two organisations, he had suggested an unfair north/south split which would have left Helmsley with the much poorer south side of the city. There was no way that Hunter could ever have gone for that, and he had decided that enough was enough and Roman had to be taken out.

At the time, Ronda had fully supported the hit and had actually been of the opinion that it should have happened sooner. Now though, after what had happened to Stephanie, she wished it could have all been handled differently. She would have been prepared to give up anything to go back and prevent her aunt from going through the hell that Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner had inflicted on her. Stephanie had survived the ordeal, but she wasn't the same woman anymore. Part of her had died.

Helmsley had also lost three men in the process of exterminating the Reigns organisation from the was something that Ronda had always enjoyed, and would enjoy again, but she was the boss now, which meant that she had to think of her people and put them first. They were people with families, people with children. If Johnson wanted a war he would get one, but if not, she was willing and happy to avoid it.

After taking her seat behind her desk, Ronda raised her glass in a somber toast. "To the lost."

Johnson raised his glass in acknowledgment and they both sipped their shots. "I like what you've done with the place," he said a moment later, looking around the office and admiring the stunning panoramic view of the Marina and the ocean through the huge windows.

"Thank you. It was Hunter's work though, not mine. He carried on from where Roman and Nicole uh... left off." Ronda hoped that by mentioning Roman, she could get to the point of the meeting, whatever it was.

Displaying no particular emotion, Johnson said, "My cousin could be very hot headed. He wasn't the easiest person to deal with."

Ronda resisted the temptation to say that Hunter hadn't found dealing with him to be all that hard when it came to putting a bullet in the back of his head.

Johnson had added, "I can see why tensions mounted when he arrived here. You, as in Helmsley, probably felt like he was muscling in on your turf and trying to push you out, right? That's not the way I like to conduct my business."

Leaning forward slightly and narrowing her eyes a little, Ronda asked, "What are you trying to say to me, Mr. Johnson?"

"Call me Rock. All of my friends and business associates do."

Holding her tongue again, Ronda took a moment to respond. "Business associates?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "Is that what you think we're going to be?"

Johnson sipped his shot again. "It's what I hope we can be. The way I look at it is this: Warren City it too big for just one organisation. We both know that. Roman knew that; it's why he decided to come here. His logic was sound; it was his approach towards Hunter that was maybe questionable."

"There's no maybe about it," Ronda said, an edge creeping into her voice. "He showed up in our city and tried to dictate terms to us. No one is ever going to..."

"Ronda, if I may," Johnson cut in calmly, raising a hand slightly as if to pacify her. "Let's cut to the chase. I'm not here to try and dictate to you. It's time to face facts. Sooner or later, someone else is going to set themselves up in this city, whether it's on good terms with you or not. Sooner or later, it will happen. Yes, you won the war against Roman, but it cost you a lot as well. No disrespect intended, but with Hunter and Stephanie both retired, Helmsley is a lot weaker than it once was. There are plenty of people out there who would be keen to try and exploit that. What I'm proposing to you is: I set up here in Warren City and we work together..."

Ronda was boiling inside. She had no idea how she had manged to resist telling him that she would show him how weak Helmsley was. "Sorry," she snapped. "I've heard how your family try and 'work together' with people before. We take the south half of the city, you take the north where all the money is? Forget it. Not happening."

Remaining perfectly calm in the face of her rising anger, Johnson said, "I didn't say that. You haven't listened to my proposal."

Hidden behind the desk, Ronda hands were clenched tightly into fists as she attempted to calm down. Part of her was trying to see the sense in what he had said about the inevitability of someone else setting up in the city. "I'm listening," she managed to say.

Johnson downed the rest of his shot and leaned forward to set the glass down on her desk. "In my opinion, there's no need to divide the city at all. What I'm suggesting is a partnership. Together, we make a significant increase in production and we use a contact of mine to ship the additional product. I have buyers lined up who are willing to pay top dollar. They're aware that Helmsley make some of the best product available and they want to get their hands on it. Right now you can't meet that demand, even if you had the contacts. By working together we'd bring in a lot more money, and we'd divide it equally, fifty-fifty. I'm talking about a real partnership, not a rivalry. Mutual benefit, mutual profits, and we fully control the city. With both of our organisations in Warren City and with us working as allies, no one would even consider trying to move in on us."

Considering it, Ronda had to admit that there was a certain logic to the idea. Helmsley's lab was currently operating at close to its full capacity, and even if it was possible to cook more, shipping it would then become a serious challenge for Paul Heyman and the distribution arm of the operation. There was only so much meth you could hide in the day to day operation of a food processing company. With two labs in operation in the city and two avenues of distribution, it would definitely be easier to make more money. However, there were several questions that she needed answers to before she could seriously consider the proposition.

"Tell me, Rock, why is it that you want to do business with Helmsley? Let's be upfront about it; my uncle shot your cousin in the head and I did the same to his wife. You know that, yet you want to walk in here and shake my hand on a deal? If roles were reversed, I'd rather kill you."

"A rather frank admission," Johnson smiled. "It shows me that you're still learning, Ronda." Somehow he had managed not to sound too patronising. "Yes, Roman was my cousin, but that doesn't mean I think he was perfect. Far from it, in fact. In business he was naive, arrogant. He got himself into a war and lost. There was an opportunity in this city, and in approaching it incorrectly, he failed to take that opportunity. I'm a businessman, and I now intend to take that opportunity myself by working with you instead of fighting against you."

Again, Ronda had to admit that what he said made sense. If Johnson wanted her dead, this was hardly the best way for him to go about it. It would have been a lot easier to have someone hose her and her security detail down with a machine gun while they were walking out of the hotel, or have her car blown up, or any number of other methods. No one was untouchable, no matter how much security they had. As a trained sniper, she knew that better than most. "You're talking about manufacturing and distributing here, and the way you talk makes it seem like you're set up to do it already?"

"I am," Johnson nodded. "Or at least, I soon will be. I have a lab a few weeks away from completion and I have distribution already in place with an associate who my family have worked with successfully for several years now. The costs of that distribution would come out of my end of the profits. Call that a sign of good faith, if you like."

Reading between the lines, Ronda now understood what the full meaning of the conversation was. Johnson had been constructing a lab in the city for some time ahead of this meeting, which meant that what he was really saying was that either they reached an agreement on this deal or he started production anyway and another war would be the result.

The faces of the three men she had lost fighting Reigns' people began to flash through her mind, followed by the faces of their wives and girlfriends, crying heartbroken tears when she had passed on the tragic news. Then came Stephanie's tortured screams and the sound of her sobbing. She could hear it all now as clearly as she had back then. Night after night, the memories had relentlessly haunted her aunt. It had been torture for both Ronda and Hunter to know what she was going through as she relived her ordeal over and over; both of them feeling powerless to help her. Another war was not the way to go. Even if Helmsley emerged victorious again, there would be further heavy prices to pay. Maybe this time Shane would be the one to suffer or be killed. It was definitely possible, and she knew that she couldn't live with herself if anything happened to him because of a rash decision that she had made.

"You're in charge now, Ronda. You set the tone. I love you." Those had been Hunter's final words to her as he kissed her on the cheek to say goodbye. It was time to do exactly what he had said: Set the tone and do the right thing for her people. It was time step up and prove herself to be a true leader.

Ronda downed her shot and said, "Alright, Rock. I'm interested. Another war wouldn't be good for either of us; not least because the FBI are showing a lot of interest in Warren City right now. Those of us who didn't end up dead would almost certainly end up in the hole for the rest of our days. I'll need to meet with your distribution contact and I'll need to discuss this with my people, but in principle, I think we can come to an agreement. It's not going to be fifty-fifty though. My offer is seventy-thirty in my favour."

Johnson flashed his broad smile again, clearly finding her offer amusing. "Seventy-thirty and I pay for distribution costs? We both knows that's not going to happen. Fifty five-forty five, your favour."

"No chance," Ronda said dismissively, deciding that she needed to show some force, whether she wanted to agree to the deal or not. Johnson wasn't going to leave with the impression that Ronda Helmsley could be pushed around. "Let's not forget where we are. Warren City has belonged to Helmsley for twenty years and we already have a more than successful operation here. If you want in, it's going to cost you, regardless of what you bring to the table. "Sixty five-thirty five. Final offer."

Johnson ignored her last two words and said, "Sixty-forty."

Giving him a cold look of determination, Ronda said, "Sixty two and a half-thirty seven and a half. Don't try and push me anymore or we're done with this discussion, and the deal's off the table."

"I don't really like those numbers," Johnson said, staring right back at her.

Not giving an inch, Ronda said, "Either we shake hands or we don't. Are you prepared to make that kind of sacrifice when we're separated by two and half percent?"

"Are you?" Johnson countered. "I've agreed to pay for distribution out of my end and I'm willing to agree to a percentage in your favour. I think I've demonstrated my commitment to making this partnership work. How about you do the same?" He held out his hand for Ronda to shake and repeated his offer. "Sixty-forty."

Ronda knew that he had her with that, and he did have a point about paying a cut to his contact. The arrangement had to be beneficial for him or he had no reason to commit to it. After leaving a tense moment of what she hoped looked like indecision, she said, "I'll talk to my people," and accepted his firm handshake. "I have to put this to them and let them vote on it. Working with a relative of Roman Reigns isn't something I can just force on them, but I think most of them will see the logic as I do, and they'll support it. I'm confident in saying that we have a deal."

"I'll set up a meeting with my contact," Johnson said with a satisfied smile as he got to his feet and straightened his jacket, preparing to leave. "I'll be in touch in the next couple of days. That's long enough for you to talk this over with your people?"

Courteously standing herself to bring the meeting to a close, Ronda nodded. "It is. We'll talk soon."


	5. Chapter 5

_Helmsley Mansion_

"What a fucking day," Ronda sighed as she walked into the mansion's main living room and into Shane's waiting arms. His suit jacket lay on the couch next to where he was standing, having only just been tossed there a moment before she entered the room.

Until a trustworthy replacement could be found, it was Shane's job to manage the hotel at Warren City Golf Club. He was happy to be embracing his girl after a long day on the job. With a satisfied sigh, he said, "I thought you might find it tough on your first day, so I brought a bottle of wine home. I only just walking in actually."

Ronda didn't mention that there was a wine cellar downstairs with tens of thousands of dollars worth of wine in stock. It was the thought that counted. "Thank you, honey," she said, reaching up slightly to kiss him on the cheek. "You always know how to make me feel better."

Shane pulled back slightly and kissed her forehead, an affectionate gesture that he knew she loved. "I didn't really do anything, babe."

"You were here when I got home. That's all I needed. I love you."

"I love you too," Shane smiled and kissed her again, this time softly on the lips. "Do you want to sit down and tell me about your day, or shall I make a start on dinner while you have a shower?"

"You've only just got in yourself," Ronda protested. "You've had a long day too and I don't want you cooking right away."

"It's not a problem," Shane assured her easily.

Ronda reached up and kissed him again. "No, honey. Dinner can wait until later. I'm actually not even hungry. Let's sit down and talk for a bit; I missed you today."

They separated and made themselves comfortable on the other couch; Shane sitting at one end and Ronda half lying on the rest of it, resting her head on his shoulder, his arm wrapped around her. Ronda almost purred in satisfaction. "This is all I wanted all day. I spent all morning with a hangover and things went downhill from there."

Shane raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. "Downhill from a hangover?"

"Yeah, but I do have a bit of good news too. I had some woman come in, telling me about how her husband was killed by some of Reigns' men. He saw something he shouldn't have down at the docks or something, I don't know. Anyway, she was trying to get me to give her a job at the hotel. I told her I didn't have anything to give her, but then an idea came to me. We're going to have a new maid, if her story checks out, so we won't have to cook dinner anymore."

" _We_ don't cook dinner anyway," Shane laughed. "You incinerate anything you go near."

"Fuck you," Ronda said playfully. "Anyway, like I said, we'll have a maid soon."

"Okay, sounds good. I've got to be honest, interviewing a maid doesn't really sound like it's downhill from a hangover though. Did something else happen?"

"Yeah. The small matter of Roman Reigns' cousin showing up unannounced." She regretted breaking the news like that even as she was doing it.

"What?" Shane demanded angrily, exploding from the couch as Ronda sat up just in time. "That son of a bitch The Rock? He's here, in our city, after what happened with Steph? He's got some fucking nerve. And he shows up unannounced at your office on your first day there? If I'd have been there..."

"Shane, please, calm down. Let me tell you what happened." Ronda stood up, took his hands in hers and looked up into his eyes, which were now burning with rage. "I need you to listen to me, baby," she said softly, trying to calm him with her tone as much as her words.

Shane closed his eyes and squeezed her hands hard for a couple of seconds, using it as a way to get himself back under control. "I'm sorry," he said, opening his eyes again and kissing her on the forehead. "It's just whenever I think of what they did to Steph..."

"I know," Ronda mumbled. The images of Scott Steiner stabbing her aunt's vagina with a box cutter and then raping her were repeating themselves in her mind again, as they seemed to every day. "Trust me, when he introduced himself to me in the lobby, part of me wished I had a gun on me so I could blow him away right there and then. Uncle Hunter kept telling me how important it is to try and be more diplomatic with people though, and you've told me that too, so I had him follow me up to my office and I sat down with him. Trust me, it made me sick to have to do it."

Shane removed his hands from Ronda's and sat back down on the couch. She sat beside him as he said, "No, you did the right thing, babe. I'm sorry I went off like that. What did he want? I mean, why is he here? If he fucking threatened you..."

Ronda cut him off again, "He came to make me, us, an offer to go into business with him. He's almost finished building a lab of his own and he has distribution in place with an associate of his. He was sugar coating a lot, but basically the situation is that either we work with him or we work against him. Working with him, we'd be putting out at least twice as much product and he agreed to a sixty-forty split in our favour. He also agreed to pay for the distribution costs of shipping the stuff he produces out of his end."

Trying to keep up and take in what she was saying, Shane said, "Wait a minute. Slow down. So he's already got his own setup almost ready to go online here, and yet he wants to work with us and split the profits in our favour? What did he do, forget who killed Roman and Nicole and the rest of their crew? This is bullshit, Ron."

Ronda began to second guess herself. She'd had the same suspicion during the meeting, but had allowed herself to be swayed by the fact that it was so important at the moment to avoid another turf war. Not only was she determined to avoid losing any more of her people, she also had the FBI to worry about. Melina Perez could hardly have been any clearer in that regard. What if The Rock's intention was to smile to her face only to get her to turn her back so that he could stick a knife in it? It was definitely a very real possibility. The realisation hit her that she was out of her depth, and it was a bitter pill to swallow.

"Maybe he is trying to play us," she admitted, looking away from him and down at her hands as she picked at one of her nails. She knew she could always be honest with Shane about anything, but she hated the way that she was feeling. Being inadequate was such a foreign concept to her and it really hurt. "I feel out of my depth here. I'm not ready for this shit. All I know is combat, killing people. I'm no fucking boss. I'm not smart like Uncle Hunter or Aunt Steph, or you."

"Don't say that," Shane said, a little more forcefully than he intended. "Look at me."

Ronda did as he said and what he saw in her eyes pained him. Seeing the love of his life upset was a rarity, which only made it hurt all the more when it happened. He decided that a pep talk was what she needed.

"You're new to this, yes, but that doesn't mean you can't do it. You're the boss now, and you're a Helmsley. Whether it's by blood or not makes no difference; this was always your destiny, it was always what Hunter and Steph wanted, and we all have confidence in you. Have you not seen the guys, how they look up to you? When you speak to them, they hang on every word you say. They'd follow you to the ends of the Earth if you told them to. Trust me, they don't respect you any less than they did Hunter or Steph. No one has any doubts in your ability to lead Helmsley, and for good reason. You might not be as good a diplomat as Hunter, yet, but you _are_ smart. I don't want to hear you say that again, okay?"

"Okay," Ronda said quietly. His words had brought tears to her eyes. What he'd said about her people looking up to her and having confidence in her had particularly touched her. "I'm afraid to fuck up and get my people killed or arrested by making the wrong decision, Shane. Before, I just had to do what Uncle Hunter told me to do, now it's all my responsibility."

"And it is a huge responsibility," Shane agreed. "I can't sit here and tell you that you're in an easy position where you're never going to have to make tough decisions, or that you're never going to make mistakes, because I'd be lying if I said that. You will make mistakes. That's the nature of the beast. I know you, though, babe. You're strong enough to do this. Like I said, Hunter and Steph both knew without doubt that you were strong enough. They raised you, and they did it well. They would never have even considered leaving the business in the hands of anyone else, not even me. You've got this. And when you need to talk things over, you know I'm always going to be here, right by your side."

Ronda took a deep breath and tried to get her focus back. Just having Shane there to comfort and encourage her helped more than he could know. "I didn't commit us to anything with Rock. I said I was confident we had a deal, but I'd need to speak with my people before anything was final. I can still back us out if I have to. It's a fucking tough one though, because I don't doubt that the shit will hit the fan if we don't work with him. Perez couldn't have been clearer about the fact that we're going to have the FBI crawling all over our asses if people keep showing up dead. Speaking of which, the other big problem we've got is guns. We had to get rid of almost everything we had after taking those Reigns assholes out. We need to re-stock in a big way."

"Rollins is on good terms with those bikers, isn't he? Do they still run guns?"

"Yeah. I already had him reach out a couple of days ago. He's set up a meeting for the end of the week. I never really liked doing business with The Ministry, especially that Undertaker guy, but I have to admit that they've never fucked us over in the past."

"Then that should take care of the gun problem. As far as this Rock character is concerned, I don't like it, but I think we have to work with him for now. We're not in a position to wage another war and he must know that. If he wanted to meet us head on to try and get payback for Reigns, he could have shown up and done exactly that already. We're in a big rebuilding period with a new boss, three men lost, low on weaponry, heat from the feds. We need some time to get back on our feet. Working with this guy should give us that time."

"Agreed," Ronda said, nodding. "It's the only real play available right now." Now sounding more like usual self, she announced her decision. "We work with this guy, but we watch him and his people like hawks. If I get the first idea that he might not be legit with this partnership, we strike first and we take him and his whole fucking crew out. This city belongs to Helmsley and that's not changing on my fucking watch. We'll worry about the consequences with the feds afterwards. I know I have to put this to a vote, but I have to tell the guys like it is. There really is no other way to handle this right now."

"Yes, boss," Shane said, smiling proudly. "We'll get everyone in the back room tomorrow and you can tell them what the score is."

Ronda leaned back, relaxing into the couch and blew out a heavy sigh. "Fucking hell, what a day. I'm so tense."

An idea came to Shane and he began to feel aroused. "I could take care of that for you. You could let all of that tension out. You know what I'm talking about."

Ronda looked at him and he saw the desire in her eyes, which told him that she knew exactly what he meant. "Are you still okay with it? I didn't want to bring it up... after what happened. I thought you might find it different now; feel differently about it, I mean."

"No, babe. I don't feel differently about it. I love you, and it was always our thing. It's totally different to what happened with Steph. How about you, are you okay with it?"

Ronda didn't hesitate, already feeling herself burning up at the prospect. "Definitely. I love you and I know you'd never hurt me. I want to do it. I really do. I've missed it ever since you went away."

Shane felt himself hardening. He knew exactly what drove her, knew her every desire, and she knew his also. In almost every aspect of her life, she was the powerful one, the strong one, the dominant one. The only exception was in the bedroom, where she longed to let herself go, to be totally submissive to him, and to trust him to not only satisfy her needs, but also to respect and protect her at the same time. She had told him that sometimes she needed that from him so badly that it felt like some kind of hunger, rather than an urge for sexual pleasure. For his part, Shane relished his role as a Dom. Experienced in bondage, he had introduced Ronda to it gradually as their relationship had progressed, encouraging her into her role as his Sub, which she now relished so much. Role-playing had always been one of the most enjoyable aspects for them, which was why he said, "Let's go over to my place. We'll need to start over with a new story." He stood up and offered his hand to Ronda.

Taking his hand, she allowed him to gently pull her to her feet. They exchanged a passionate kiss before she said, "I'm sure we'll think of something."


	6. Chapter 6

_Shane McMahon took hold of the living room door handle with a back latex gloved hand and slowly pushed it downwards, hoping that it wouldn't make a sound. Thankfully, it didn't. It was vitally important for him to move as silently as he could, for the next few moments at least. Breaking into the house undetected had been the hard part and he'd managed that, so it would be a travesty if his intended victim heard him coming now and managed to scream for help, or even tried to fight him off. Neither of those things were part of his plan. Ronda Helmsley was going to have no chance; he would make sure of that. After he'd put so much time and effort into stalking her, she was finally going to be his._

 _He could hear her moving around in the next room, the kitchen, just at the end of the hallway. Moments earlier he'd heard the sound of the sink being filled with water. As he slowly opened the door, he risked taking a peak at what she was doing. His breath caught in his throat when he set eyes on her. She was wearing pink booty shorts and a matching crop top. Her hair was up in a high ponytail._

 _'Fucking stunning,' he thought. 'Her body is incredible! Look at that ass! Jesus Christ!_ '

 _Smiling behind his black ski mask, he decided that the situation was as close to perfect as he could have possibly hoped for. Ronda had her back to him, washing dishes, which meant that her attention was on the task at hand,_ not _on the unconsidered possibility of someone sneaking up behind her. It was time for him to make his move._

 _Ronda was taken totally by surprise by her attacker. The first she knew of anything being wrong was when a powerful, gloved hand clamped over mouth. Simultaneously, the attacker wrapped his other arm around her waist, pinning her right arm at her side and pulling her tightly to him in one fluid motion. Her attempted scream merely came out as a muffled, "Mmmmpphh!" Already she was being bragged backwards out of the kitchen. She tried to resist, but her heels provided no traction on the tiled floor._ _With her free hand she attempted to pull at the hand that was covering her mouth. If only she could get it off and scream for help..._ _Her efforts were futile, and wriggling out of the tight waist lock also proved to be impossible._

 _"Sshhh," her attacker ordered in a harsh whisper as he clamped the hand down even harder, crushing her cheeks against her teeth. Only the s_ _ki mask stopped his lips from touching her ear. "Stop struggling. I don't want to hurt you, but you're going to make me if you keep on like that. We're going to go upstairs; nice and quiet like I said."_

 _The wide eyed look of terror in her eyes made Shane begin to harden, his growing erection pressing against her ass cheek. Despite his order for Ronda to remain silent, part of him wanted her not to as the sounds that a woman made when her mouth was covered were a real turn on for him. There would be plenty of that to come, that was for sure._

 _Still fighting against him, Ronda managed to dig her heels into the thick carpet when she was dragged out into the hallway, until her left shoe slipped off her foot. Shane stopped dragging her and released the waist lock, only to shift his hold and grab her right arm which he proceeded to force up her back, causing incredible pain in her shoulder. As she cried out in pain into his hand, he snarled at her, "I told you I'd fucking hurt you if you made me. Resist me once more and I'm going to make you feel pain like you've never felt before. Now, last chance. Am I going to rip your shoulder out of the socket, or are we going to go upstairs nice and quiet with no struggling?"_

 _"Don't hurt me," Ronda tried to plead, but the words were unintelligible._

 _"Nod your head, you stupid bitch!"_

 _Ronda nodded her head weakly, indicating that she wasn't going to resist anymore. As much as she wanted to, she was too scared. She had no idea what this man wanted. Did he have robbery on his mind, or even worse, rape? Maybe he even intended to kill her, or would do if she made him angry enough. For now, she had to go along with what he was telling her and hope that an opportunity to escape would present itself later. The combination of panic and the difficulty of breathing with the hand over her mouth began to make her hyperventilate._

 _"Now walk properly," Shane ordered, pulling her tightly against him in the waist lock once more. "No dragging your feet."_

 _Pleasingly to him, there was no further resistance other than a few fearful whimpers as he he half dragged, half hauled Ronda up the stairs. Her remaining shoe caught on one of the steps and came off her foot. Reaching the top of the stairs, he made for the closest door which had been left ajar. Pushing his way through it, he saw that it was a bedroom with a Queen size bed. "Perfect. Get your ass on there._ _" He dragged her towards it and tossing her onto the bed so that she was lying on her front with her head close to the bottom end. Before she could try get away, he sat on top of her lower back, pinning her down._

 _"Please, stop! Take whatever you want..." Ronda gasped out between frantic breaths._

 _Shane leaned forward over her and clamped his hand over her mouth again, forcing her head to turn to one side. "Shut the fuck up!" he hissed at her, emphasising each word. With his other hand he had grabbed her wrists and pinned them down. "How many times do I have to tell you? Now, sshhh, breathe. This is only going to be as bad as you make it for yourself."_

 _Ronda tried her best to do as he said, sucking in as much air as she could through her nose. The best that she could hope for was that this was a robbery and he was going to tie her up before clearing the place out. At this point, given the situation she was already in, she would take that as long as nothing worse happened. Gradually her breathing returned closer to normal._

 _"There we go," Shane said patronisingly. "Now, I need to take my hand away from your mouth and let go of your wrists so I can tie you up. You know how this works by now. Lie still and keep quiet or I hurt you, understand?"_

 _After received a nod of compliance, Shane took his hand away and was happy when Ronda just lay there, looking scared half to death but seemingly glad of the better freedom to breathe. Shrugging his arms out of the straps of the backpack that he'd been wearing, he said, "Good girl. Not a sound now, and I'll soon be out of here." Placing the backpack beside his captive, on the opposite side to that which she was facing. After opening it he removed several lengths of bondage rope and a roll of thick silver duct tape. He set them all down beside her and then picked up one of the ropes._

 _Leaning further forward, he expertly wove_ _the rope around her wrists several times, binding them together tightly enough to be totally secure, but not so tight that her circulation would be restricted. Ronda let out a muted cry of pain as he cinched in the knot. Wasting no time, Shane pulled her arms out straight in front of her and set about tying another of the ropes around the first one, in the small gap between her wrists. He then tied the other end around the post at the foot of the bed. The end result was that her wrists were tied together and tied to the end of the bed, leaving her with almost no range of motion in her arms at all._

 _Ronda had lifted her head slightly to watch what he was doing. "You don't have to do this," she pleaded weakly._

 _With a sigh, Shane said, "I just knew you wouldn't be able to keep your mouth shut. I'd better help you out with that, huh?" He picked up the roll of duct tape and pulled out a long strip, making sure that Ronda could see what he was doing._

 _"No! Don't put that over my... Mmmpppphhhhh!"_

 _Shane had pulled the tape over her mouth as tightly as he possibly could. After smoothing the loose end down onto her cheek, he wound the roll around her head until the tape was wrapped all the way around. He bit through the tape to separate it from the roll and smoothed the loose end down over the top of the one he'd started with. The tape was so tight on Ronda's cheeks that her eyes were forced open a little wider than usual. The outline of her sealed lips was clearly visible underneath the gag._

 _"Gmt thnf fhnt hff mm!" Ronda yelled into the tape as she tried to strain her hands against the ropes to get them close enough to her mouth so that she could try and pull it off. The effort was wasted as her hands couldn't even get close before the rope which was tied to the foot of the bed pulled tight._

 _"You're wasting your time," Shane told her, matter of fact and with humour in his voice. "I can't understand you anyway, obviously. You'd be better off just lying still and staying quiet."_

 _"Fmmk ymmph!"_

 _"Oh, fuck me? No, Ms. Helmsley. That's not very nice at all is it? Now, lie still. I have to tie your legs. I think I'm going to have to help you out of these booty shorts first though. Christ, you have an incredible ass."_

 _Now realising that it was likely that her attacker intended to rape her, Ronda was writhing underneath him as he shifted around on top of her to face her legs and began to remove her shorts. Even though she knew her struggling was achieving nothing productive, she couldn't just lie there and let him do whatever he wanted. The only result she managed to get was that her wrists hurt more from straining against the ropes. Shifting her focus, she tried to work the tape off her mouth. It was equally as hopeless. The strong adhesive had completely sealed her mouth, making it impossible for her to use her tongue to work against it. All she had in her favour was the dampness of her lips, and the fact that she could move them ever so slightly. She realised that maybe she could work on the adhesive that way, but it would be a slow process, and even then it wouldn't necessarily get the tape off her mouth as it was wrapped around her head so tightly._

 _"That's better. Quiet at last. Stay still while I tie your legs and I promise I won't hurt you. That's obviously what you want, so how about a bit of co-operation?"_

 _There was no way Ronda was going to let him tie her legs up without a fight, but even though she tried to resist, her legs were soon spread apart and her ankles tied to the bars that made up the framework at the head end of the bed._ _Shane got off the bed and studied his handiwork with a satisfied and lustful smile. Ronda had turned her head to the side so that she could look up at him, only satisfying him even more with her wide eyes and her muffled moan of protest into the tape._

 _"You look fucking incredible," he breathed and then sat back down, this time beside her. After brushing a few strands of hair away from her face, he softly traced the outline of her lips with a finger. "Nothing's quite as attractive as a gagged woman, you know that?"_

 _The only act of defiance available to Ronda was to turn away so that he couldn't enjoy looking at her that way. Her eyes settled on the ropes securing her wrists and she tugged at them as best she could once more._

 _"Here's the interesting thing about the way I tied you: The more you struggle, the more it's going to hurt. You won't get free and you won't get the tape off your mouth. Trust me; I've done this plenty of times. Look at me."_

 _Despite her own better judgement, Ronda stubbornly refused to do as he said, instead closing her eyes, fearful that he might hit her as a punishment for her defiance. She was almost right. Shane grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked it back, causing her to cry out in pain._

 _"I told you to look at me. If you want me to start beating you, I will. Honestly, it's not really my thing, but I'm not going to have you ignore me like that. I've been watching this place for weeks. I know your routine. I know your boyfriend's not going to be back for at least four hours. If you want to spend that time with me kicking the living shit out of you for disobeying me, we can do that."_

 _The threat served its purpose perfectly. Ronda had already turned to him before he finished speaking and was shaking her head no as well as trying to say the word through the tape._

 _"I didn't think so," Shane said, smiling again. "As I was saying, you're only going to make it worse by struggling. The ropes will really hurt you if you keep on." He began to stroke the tape over her lips again. "The best thing you can do is accept the gag and accept the bonds. Relax into them as much as you can. Who knows, maybe you'll even enjoy it when I fuck you?"_

 _Ronda's eyes widened even further. Giving up any semblance of resistance, she began to beg into the tape._

 _Totally ignoring her, Shane had continued, "You see, the thing is, while your brain might not want it to, your body reacts to things like pain. It releases chemicals and you get what's called an endorphin high. And I bet a dirty bitch like you has rape fantasies anyway, am I right? I bet you're nice and wet and ready for me."_

 _He stood up and began to unbutton his jeans. Ronda closed her eyes, tears welling up in them, and turned away from him again. When she felt him climb onto the bed and begin to get in position, she began to moan desperately into her gag._

 _"You don't know how often I've thought about this," Shane said, roughly lifting her hips and touching his rock hard cock against her entrance. "Nice and wet, just as I thought. You ready?"_

 _Ronda frantically shook her head no again and screamed the word into the tape repeatedly, straining against it and her bonds as much as she possibly could, despite the pain it caused her._

 _Shane could deny himself no longer, slipping himself into her and working himself into a rhythm. "Oh fuck, you're so tight. Just like I hoped."_

 _Soon he was pounding away, savouring her warmth almost as much as her breathless cries, which continued to drive him even more wild._ _After a couple of minutes, he could feel her body going with him. Leaning forward, he pushed up the ski mask enough to uncover his mouth and nibbled at her ear, just above where the tape was wrapped over it. "Cum for me, Ms Helmsley," he whispered. "I know you can cum for me. Just let yourself go."_

 _The tone of her muffled cries began to rise, which told him that she was starting to get closer to her climax. Slowing down his thrusts slightly, he urged, "Let go, baby. Just let go. Cum for me."_

 _And she did, letting her head fall to the bed cover and her arms go slack against the bonds as she groaned in ecstasy several times._

 _"That's my girl," Shane panted out, renewing the vigour of his pounding, now seeking his own peak. Joining her in groaning loudly, he released himself over the course of his final three thrusts._

* * *

As soon as he pulled out, Ronda banged her fists repeatedly on the bed and growled loudly into the tape. It was their equivalent of a safe word. She wanted to be released, and judging by the way that she was struggling for air, Shane could see why. Still panting himself, he quickly removed the ski mask and tossed it aside and then crawled down to the other end of the bed and set about peeling the tape off.

"It's okay, baby. I've got you. I don't want to pull it too fast because it'll hurt."

Shane would ideally have wanted to use some mineral oil to make the removal of the tape less painful for her, but Ronda had made it clear that she didn't want to wait for that on this occasion. He was pleased to discover that at least her mouth and the fact that she'd started sweating had moistened the tape and loosened it from her lips. It came away relatively easily and she gasped out, "Sorry. My nose was starting to block."

Shane set about untying her wrists. "Don't apologise, babe. There's nothing to apologise for. That was incredible. You have no idea how much I've missed being able to do things like that with you. You make it all so convincing, and you're so fucking beautiful it's untrue."

By the time her hands were freed, Ronda's breathing was more under control. She rubbed at her wrists for a moment and then sat up on her knees and took hold of him, a hand on each of his cheeks. The look of unbridled love in her eyes warmed his heart in a way that he knew he would never be able to describe to anyone in words. She pulled him to her and kissed him passionately.

"I love you, Shane. I could never tell you much. I don't know how I managed to live without you for so long, but I'll never do it again, do you hear me?"

"I hear you. We're never going to be apart again, I promise."

Ronda kissed him again. "Tomorrow, I'm going to call Uncle Hunter and Aunt Steph and tell them about us. I'm not hiding you or our relationship anymore. I'm proud to be with you and I want them to know that you're my man. I want our people to know. I want the world to know."

"I can't say no to that," Shane said softly, smiling and kissing her delicately on the forehead. "I love you, Ronda."


	7. Chapter 7

_Hunter's Bar_

Shane had made calls the previous night to let everyone in the inner circle know that they were required to be at Hunter's at ten AM for a session in the back room. When he drove their SUV into the parking lot at the rear of the bar at five before ten he saw that everyone else's cars were already there, before the specified time. The other guys had been sure to arrive ahead of the boss; just the way it should be.

"Everyone's here," Ronda said from the passenger seat, clearly thinking something similar. "I'm going to take a few minutes alone to call Uncle Hunter and Aunt Steph first, then we can get to it. Good thing there's no time difference to Barbados."

Telling Hunter and Stephanie about her relationship with Shane was something that she had always dreaded; in fact it was something that she'd actively avoided until now. As much as she was proud to be with him, she knew how protective her adoptive aunt and especially her uncle were of her, and she could also see why the fact that she was with a man who some people would call her uncle could be seen as disturbing if looked at the wrong way. As far as she was concerned there was no blood relationship between her and Shane, so there was no problem at all with the fact that she loved him and wanted to be with him. Getting Hunter and Stephanie to see it that way could prove to be challenging to say the least.

Then there was the matter of Dwayne Johnson and his offer to form a partnership with Helmsley. Although there was really only one logical way for things to proceed in that regard, the decision still had to be voted on. It promised to be a crucial meeting for the future direction of Helmsley. It was also the first major decision that had to be made under Ronda's leadership; a fact which had her feeling nervous despite Shane's assurances that everyone was just as willing to follow her direction as they had been to follow Hunter's in the past. Nervousness wasn't something that she was used to, but neither was being the boss of the entire Helmsley empire. It was a huge responsibility to have weighing on her shoulders.

"You know, since I took charge I've gotten even more respect for Uncle Hunter, if that's even possible. Being ultimately responsible for everything Helmsley is a lot of weight to carry."

Leaning over and giving her a tender kiss, Shane said, "You've got this, babe. Just don't appear nervous or indecisive in front of the guys. You've been in the army, you know how chain of command works."

"I know," Ronda nodded as Shane killed the SUV's engine. "I'm sure I'll be okay when we're in there, it's just the anticipation, if that's the right word."

With that they got out of the SUV and headed around to the bar's front entrance. Two members of the Helmsley security team trailed behind, having arrived in a separate SUV, in which they'd been following Shane closely as he drove through the city. Ronda said, "Rusev doesn't fuck around with security does he? I'm still trying to accept that I have to be followed or shepherded everywhere I go."

"Warren City's not what it used to be, babe. What that bitch Reigns did to Steph showed us that. There are people out there who are crazy enough to take on Helmsley in our own back yard. We have to be prepared for that if it happens."

"I get that," Ronda sighed. "It's just something else that I'm trying to adjust to is all."

They walked into Hunter's and exchanged greetings with the rest of the inner circle, who were standing around at the bar, chatting while they waited for the meeting to be called. Hunter's was known as somewhere that only the well off were welcomed, and this was reflected in both the decor and the prices. At lunch and in the evenings it was one of the favourite establishments for the people who worked in the nearby financial district. At this time of the morning there were hardly any customers in, which was perfect as far as Ronda was concerned. She was happy to take their money, but she didn't like how people always wanted to try and engage her in meaningless conversation, as though they got some strange satisfaction from the mere fact that they had exchanged words with Ronda Helmsley. That kind of politicking was the kind of thing that both Hunter and Stephanie had been so good at, but Ronda had to admit that it was something that she'd failed to learn from them over the years.

Wade Barrett offered his hand and a smile when Ronda approached him. Ronda accepted the handshake as he said, "I need a minute please, boss, if you can?"

"I need to make a call. Can this wait until after the meeting?"

"Yeah, after the meeting is fine, but I _do_ need a minute before we go."

"Okay, you got it," Ronda promised him. As she headed for the privacy of the back room, she wondered what Barrett might want to discuss with her. Given that he was Helmsley's chemist and the supervisor at the meth lab, it seemed logical that it related to some kind of problem at the lab. Production issues were the least of her concerns for the time being; breaking the news to her Uncle Hunter was a much bigger and more immediate source of stress. Almost reluctantly, she walked into the back room and closed the door behind her, taking a look at Shane who looked like he was sharing a joke with Rollins and Lesnar as she did so.

It still seemed incredibly strange that the seat at the head of the table which had always been Hunter's was now hers. It also seemed wrong somehow, almost disrespectful, to sit there when she made a call to him, so she took her old seat at what would have been his right hand. It only took Hunter three rings to answer her call, but they seemed to last forever to Ronda. She felt her stomach turning over at the prospect of his reaction to what she was about to tell him.

"Hello sweetheart," he greeted her warmly. Hearing his voice instantly made her miss him so much more. She had essentially lost her father figure for the second time in her life and it really hurt.

"Hi, Uncle Hunter." She noticed herself that she sounded nervous; he was sure to pick up on it.

"Everything okay?" His tone indicated that the question really meant, "Tell me what's wrong."

"I'm okay. How are you? How's Aunt Steph?"

"We're doing really good." She could tell that he was smiling as he said it. "Moving here has done wonders for Steph. The night terrors aren't so frequent now and she's been having some really good days lately. I'm starting to see the old Steph fighting back, Ron. We'll have to come see you for a few days soon."

"I'd really like that, and that's such great news," Ronda said, feeling a mixture of delight and relief that Stephanie seemed to be getting past the worst of the after affects of what Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner had done to her. She could tell from the way that he'd talked about Stephanie that she wasn't around. "I can't wait to see you guys. Where's Aunt Steph? I hoped to talk to her after you."

"She's down on the beach. She sometimes likes to have some alone time down there. It helps, you know?" Ronda didn't really know, but she wasn't going to say that. As long as Stephanie was improving, that was what mattered. Hunter had added, "I'll get her to call you later though, okay?"

"Okay, great."

An awkward silence descended on the conversation. Ronda fidgeted awkwardly on her chair. She knew that Hunter was waiting for her to tell him what the nervousness that he'd detected was about, she just couldn't get herself started.

"What is it, sweetheart? Business? You don't have to be nervous about asking for advice from me or Steph, you know that. I told you before we left that you can call any time, day or night, and..."

"It's not business," Ronda mumbled, cutting in. "Well, I do have something business related going on, but that's not why I'm... Uh..."

"It's me, Ron," he said soothingly. "You can tell me anything, you know that."

Ronda picked at one of her finger nails and contemplated ending the call. Some other part of her took over and told her to suck it up and tell him, reasoning that he was her uncle and he loved her. After clearing her throat unnecessarily, she said, "I'm with someone, Uncle Hunter. I've been with someone for a long time and I didn't tell you or Aunt Steph about it."

If anything, Hunter sounded pleased when he replied. "That's what you were nervous about telling me? I'm not mad at you for that. If you're with a guy, hell, even a woman who makes you happy, then I'm happy. Steph will be too. I don't know why you'd choose not to tell us, but that's your choice."

"It's not a woman," Ronda said, surprising herself by giggling. She soon got serious again though. "It's not that I want to keep things from you, Uncle Hunter. You know I don't. It's just, you're not going to like who it is."

This time there was a pause, and an edge that Hunter failed to completely take out of his voice, though she could tell he'd tried. "One of the guys?"

"Yes," Ronda said. She couldn't drag it out any longer. "It's Shane, Uncle Hunter. I was with him for nearly a year before he got locked up..."

"Shane?" Hunter demanded, his voice raised in a combination of surprise and anger. "Shane McMahon? You've been sleeping with your Uncle Shane? Are you fucking serious right now? He's more than twice your age!"

"He's not more than twice my age!" Ronda exclaimed indignantly. "He's forty six, I'm twenty four. And anyway, I don't care how old he is. And he's not related to me either," she pointed out, trying to be as careful as possible with her wording. "There's no blood connection between us. I know it seems awkward that he's Aunt Steph's brother, but you guys adopted me. We're not..."

"Don't even _think_ about saying we're not related! You're the daughter I never had, Ronda. You know I've told you that many times. Shane is..."

This time Ronda cut back in, desperate for him to understand things from her point of view. She knew that shouting at Hunter would get her nowhere, so she pleaded with him instead. At the same time she knew that she had to fight for Shane as she knew he would fight for her if their roles were reversed. "Shane's the man I love, Uncle Hunter. Being angry with me or with him won't change that. Think about how Aunt Steph makes you feel when you look at her, when she kisses you, everything like that. That's how Shane makes me feel. I'm not saying this lightly: I love him. I waited four and a half years for him while he was inside. Doesn't that tell you something?"

There was no response, but Ronda knew that the connection hadn't been broken. Tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Say something, Uncle Hunter, please? I really need you to be happy for me. I hope that Shane and I will marry one day, and I need you to be the one to walk me down the aisle if or when that day comes. My dad can't be here to do it, can he? You're the only father figure I've had in my life for as long as I can remember, and I need you to do that for me. I love you, damn it!"

* * *

 _Helmsley Villa - Clearwater Bay, Barbados_

Hunter was being assaulted by so many emotions all at the same time. Anger had him to the point that if Shane McMahon was in the room with him, he'd beat him half to death for touching Ronda, who he'd always thought of as his baby girl since adopting her, but at the same time her words tugged at his heart strings and brought tears to his eyes. The scene she had described with her walking down the aisle to marry Shane played itself out in his mind; firstly with him there walking with her and kissing her on the cheek as she reached the alter, seeing the smile on her face, and then again without him there. In this version Ronda walked down the aisle alone, trying her best not to look sad. It was an awful thing for him to see. In that moment he knew that no matter how uncomfortable he was with the news, he had to try and deal with it for her sake. He'd always promised to do anything he could to make her happy, and now it was time for that promise to really mean something.

"I love you too sweetheart," he eventually replied, trying to compose himself as much as possible. "You know I do, and you know that will never, ever change. Is Shane there with you? Can you put him on the phone?"

"I can get him, but I'm not going to if you're going to scream at him."

Hunter could tell by her voice that his niece was crying too. He wanted to be back in Warren City so badly at that moment; firstly to comfort her and tell her that it was all going be okay and then to take Shane aside for a serious fucking talking to. The trip that he'd planned for himself and Stephanie would have to be moved up, he decided. "If I promise not to scream at him, will you put him on?"

"If you promise," Ronda agreed. "And promise no threats either; I've heard you when you're angry with people."

Reasoning that he could get away with a white lie, he agreed. "I promise, no shouting, no threats. I want to speak to him though. Put him on please."

"Okay, wait."

He heard muffled sounds, followed by what sounded like a door opening and then her distant voice. She must have been covering the phone with her hand. "Shane? Can you come speak to Uncle Hunter please?"

After a short delay, Hunter heard the sound of the door shutting again and Shane came on the line. "Hello, Hunter. I know this can't be an easy thing..."

"Let me say my piece, Shane," Hunter cut in, and Shane stopped, allowing him to do so. "You and I have known each other for a lot of years. A man couldn't ask for a better or more loyal brother-in-law than you. You know I love you. With that being said, you know that I don't say what I'm about to say next lightly. I won't stand in the way of you and Ronda being together. She's made it clear what you mean to her." His voice turned cold as he finished what he had to say, "But if you ever, and I mean even once, hurt my niece in any way? I'll put you in the fucking ground myself. Do we understand each other?" He'd promised Ronda no threats, but this was no threat, it was a promise.

"We do," Shane replied, taking it better than Hunter had imagined. Maybe he'd expected it, or at least something similar. "And that'll never happen. We love each other, H. I'd give my life to protect her without even thinking twice about it."

Hunter managed to crack a smile as he shook his head. "That I don't doubt, you crazy son of bitch. Put Ronda back on will you?"

When she came back on the line, Ronda sounded a lot happier than before. "Uncle Hunter?"

"Hello sweetheart," Hunter said, suddenly feeling drained and in need of a stiff drink. There was a bottle of whisky in the kitchen that was going to get a hammering in the very near future. "Listen, you know what matters most to me is that you're happy. If Shane's the one you love and he feels the same about you, I won't stand in your way. And if the day does come, I'll walk you down the aisle, and I'll be the proudest man in the world when I do it too."

"I love you," Ronda managed to say. Hunter could tell that it came through a flood of tears. He could picture Shane holding her and maybe using a tissue to try and dry her cheeks.

"I love you too, Ronda. More than you'll ever know. I'll let you go so that you can go clean yourself up, and I'll go tell Steph what we've talked about. I'll take a big fucking glass of whisky with me too. Will you be okay?"

Ronda was laughing at his whisky comment now. "Yeah, I'll be okay. Call me later?"

"We will. Bye, sweetheart."

Hunter ended the call and rubbed his hands over his face as he let out a deep sigh. "Jesus fucking Christ. Five years she felt like she had to keep it from me. All that time he was inside, she felt like she couldn't come to me. It must have been awful for her. Some fucking father figure I must have been. Well, from now on I will be. I'm not the boss anymore, I'm just Uncle Hunter." That was worth a smile as he got up and left the living room, setting out to find the bottle of whisky and his wife, in that order.


	8. Chapter 8

After the phone call had concluded, Shane had insisted that Ronda had to take a few minutes to compose herself and dry her eyes before the meeting could begin. The guys realising that the new boss had been crying before addressing them would hardly fill them with confidence. For her part, Ronda knew that he was right; breaking the news to Hunter had gone as well as she could he realistically hoped for, and it was now time to get down to business and get her game face on.

"Alright," she told Shane. "I'm ready. Call the guys in please."

Shane stood up from the chair beside her and walked around to the end of the table. "Not yet. There's something you've got to do first." He pulled out the chair that he was standing behind and smiled at her. "This is where you sit now."

"Of course." Ronda got up from what hadalways been her chair, at the boss' right hand, and took her new position. Looking up at Shane, she smiled broadly. " _Now_ I'm ready. Thank you for being here for me today, honey."

Leaning down, Shane kissed her delicately on her forehead. "I promised, remember? I'm always going to be here. I'll call the guys in now." He walked over to the door, opened it and called out, "Okay guys, let's get started."

By the time the rest of the inner circle walked into the room, Shane was sitting at Ronda's right hand. She watched them file in; Lesnar, Barrett, Rollins, Heyman, Rusev. As the new addition to the circle, Heyman was left to take Stephanie's old seat, directly to Ronda's left, as everyone else took their usual places.

"Alright," Ronda began, making sure to keep her voice clear and authoritative, just the way Hunter used to. "It's been some time since we had a meeting; longer than I'd have liked, to be honest. To start with, I'd like to formally welcome Paul to the inner circle. We all know him well and know what a good job he'll do for us at the factory."

Nods and words of agreement came from everyone at the table. Looking around at her people, Ronda decided to just spit out the next piece of news. "Next, there's Shane. As you can see, I have decided that he's going to be my second in command. There's another thing I also need to let you all know, which is that Shane and I are in a relationship, and have been for more than five years."

For a moment no one said anything, leaving Ronda to wonder what the reaction was going to be. No one seemed to know what to say. The silence began to weigh heavily on the room. She glanced at Shane, who gave her a hint of a reassuring grin in return. It was Rollins who broke the silence, a smile breaking out on his face, "Now we now why he's gone fucking grey so fast."

Everyone had a good laugh at that, including Ronda and Shane. The ice was broken, and the weight of revealing her relationship to both her family and her subordinates was off her shoulders for good. It was a big relief to her.

"We'd kind of figured it out," Rusev admitted. "The way you look at each other and the amount of time you've been spending together didn't leave much to the imagination."

Lesnar added, "Yeah, you should see some of the video Rusev's security guys have. Jesus Christ..."

Ronda managed to smile as she looked at Rusev. "He better be joking?" Everyone else was laughing.

"Of course he's joking," Barrett said. "None of us want to see you two going at it, trust me."

More laughter filled the room. When it died down, Ronda got the meeting back on track. "Okay, we've had a laugh, now business. Shane's going to be my second in command. You know the drill; if I'm not around for any reason, he speaks with my authority. Give him any shit, you'll answer to me." She trusted her people, but it still had to be said.

"There are three important issues we need to discuss today. First off, as you all know, the Reigns situation has been dealt with. We all wanted it done, it had to be done, and it has been done. Unfortunately, according to Perez, it's attracted interest in Warren City from the FBI. She's confident she can deal with it right now, but she warned me off any further killing. She thinks that if any more bodies turn up, things will be taken out of her hands. We obviously don't want that. So, until further notice, no one takes any action against anyone without speaking to me first. There's a difference between not killing anyone and no bodies turning up, but we need to be more careful about what we're doing. Understood?"

Nods of acknowledgement and quiet confirmations of agreement came from everyone. No one had any further comment to make.

"Good," Ronda said with a satisfied nod of her own. "Okay, second: Guns. We're running low after getting rid of everything we used dealing with Reigns and his crew. It's one thing not to plan on killing people any time soon, but you never know when a threat might present itself. We're in a rebuilding period; that's not much of a secret to anyone. There's the possibility someone might want to make a move on us, thinking we're vulnerable. We need to be prepared for any eventuality. Seth, I want you reach out to The Ministry. The still run guns, so call Undertaker and set up a meet. Tell him we're in need of pistols and machine guns. I want to see samples of what they have. I'm not paying good money for shit guns."

"You got it, boss," Seth said. "I'll get onto him when we're done here."

Taking a deep breath, Ronda moved on to the most important part of the meeting. Her people might have been expecting, or at least not surprised by the first two items of discussion, but they definitely would be by the third. "I had a rather unwelcome surprise yesterday; a visitor who showed up unannounced at my office. It was Roman Reigns' cousin, The Rock."

"That the guy from Florida?" Lesnar asked, his voice laden with disgust, as the rest of the guys glanced around at each other in surprise.

"That's right," Ronda replied. "The guy who owns half of Miami. He showed up, all flashy suit and flashy smile, like nothing had happened in the past between Helmsley and his family."

"He's got some fucking nerve," Heyman said, surprising Ronda a little with his aggression. ""I hope you told him what happens to that family in Warren City, as if he doesn't know already. We sent that message loud and clear."

"Yeah, and yet he still shows up," Rollins said. "What the fuck?"

"He told me that he didn't hold a grudge against Helmsley for what happened; said Roman Reigns was rash and hot headed or some such shit. I obviously didn't buy that, but here's the thing: He's in the advanced stages of building a meth lab of his own somewhere in Warren City. It's only a few weeks away from going operational."

"So find out where it is and we'll burn it to the fucking ground," Rusev said angrily. "Let's not fuck around with this asshole."

Shane spoke for the first time. "It's not that simple though, is it? You know as well as I do that Rock wouldn't take that lying down, even if we did manage to pull it off. It would mean another all out war, this time with a man who has more resources and men available to him than we do, even if we were at full strength, which we're not. And then there's the FBI. If we start littering the city with bodies, we're going to have the FBI crawling up our asses. The whole thing with Perez would come unravelled and those of us who weren't dead would join her in going down for the rest of our days. I'm not going back inside again."

Lesnar's voice raised in anger as he demanded, "So we let this guy show up and fuck us in the ass, after everything we've been through? He's going to come here and do the same thing that Reigns was doing? Muscling in on our..."

"Hear me out," Ronda ordered, raising a hand for silence. It pleased her that Lesnar fell in line and stopped speaking. "The reason Rock came to see me was to make me an offer. An offer of peace." The expressions she saw in front of her told her that no one was buying, but she pressed on. "He's going to open his lab. There's nothing we can do about it. He knows that, and he knows that I know it. However, he made me offer of peace, as I said. He told me that what he wants is a partnership with Helmsley, rather than a war with us. Everyone knows we make some of the best meth in the country, thanks to Wade's formula or whatever the fuck the word for it is. Rock's idea is that he gets his lab up and running here in Warren City and we use it to produce our meth in much greater volumes. We can reach buyers outside of the city who are willing to pay top dollar for our product. Rock will use an exiting associate of his for distribution, and the costs of this deal with come out of his end of the profits. He was also willing to agree to a percentage split in our favour."

"Too good to be fucking true," Barrett said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, he's full of shit," Lesnar agreed. "And he's part of Reigns family. Fuck him."

"Maybe he is full of shit," Ronda conceded. "It definitely could be the case. The thing is though, why offer us the deal? Why not show up and go to war? Why not take us by surprise? Why announce his presence and his meth lab to us? And in any case, I really don't see an option for us other than to agree to the deal. We've just been over the situation with the FBI and the situation with the guns that we need. We're not in a position for a war. What I told Rock is that I will need to meet with this distribution associate of his and speak to my people before anything is agreed for definite. It's a huge decision for the future direction of Helmsley, so I know I can't just make it myself. We have to put it to a vote. So, do we agree to a partnership with The Rock, subject to me meeting with his distribution associate? I vote yes."

She turned to Shane, who looked back at her and smiled at her proudly. "Yes," he said without hesitating.

Next was Barrett, who seemed to be weighing up the two options as he looked back at her. It took several seconds for him to come to a decision. He shook his head. "No. I don't know what he's planning, but I don't trust him for a minute."

Next was Lesnar, who didn't hesitate. "No."

Ronda started to feel her stomach knotting up. It was all going wrong. Her people were not backing her as Shane had felt sure that they would. Asking them to work with a member of Roman Reigns' family was too much too soon.

It was time to work back down the other side of the table, starting with Rollins. Shrugging, he said, "No choice, the way I see it. Yes."

Ronda tried to hide her relief. All eyes turned to Rusev, who looked around at everyone in turn before saying, "Yes."

Finally Ronda could breathe easily. With four yes votes there was already a majority. The vote had passed, regardless of what Heyman decided. In any event, he said, "None of us _want_ to work with this guy, but with the situation being what it is, we have to, for now at least. I say yes."

"The vote passes," Ronda announced. She knew that she could rely on Lesnar and Barrett to get behind the decision now, even though they had voted against it. Votes were hardly ever unanimous, especially not on something as complicated as this. "I'll get in contact with Rock and have him set up the meet with his associate. Okay, gentlemen, that's it." She gestured to the door, dismissing everyone and then said, "Wade, can you stay behind?"

To her surprise, no one stood to leave the table. She was about to ask what was going on, but Rollins spoke first. "Before we go, we were talking this morning before you got here and we decided that there's something that we wanted to say to you, as a group."

"Should I be worried?" She was only half joking.

"No," Seth smiled. "We just wanted to say that we know it must be tough for you, what with Hunter and Stephanie leaving and you having this kind of thrust onto you so suddenly, so we want you to know that we're all behind you one hundred per cent, the same as we always were for Hunter. Hunter had confidence in you to lead, and so do we."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ronda saw Shane nodding his appreciation. He knew how much the words meant to her. It was hard for her not to bite her bottom lip as she looked around at the faces of the loyal people sitting in front of her. There would be no more doubts on her part as far as that was concerned. "Thank you guys, that means a lot."

With that, everyone apart from Shane and Barrett stood and filed out of the room. Lesnar closed the door behind him. "You needed a word?" Ronda prompted Barrett with a small smile.

"Yeah," he sighed. "There's no easy way to say this, boss. The last few production runs have been light when I've weighed them prior to shipping them out."

The expression on Ronda's face hardened. She knew exactly what he was saying. "Someone in the lab is stealing product?"

"That's the only explanation," Barrett said, leaving no room for doubt. "You know I'm good at what I do. I know exactly how much should be there, so I know when it's light. It's only small amounts, but that's not the point. Someone's on the take."

Under the table, Ronda's fists had clenched tightly. She turned to Shane. "Have everyone who works in the lab followed, discreetly. We're going to find out who it is who thinks they can steal from me."

Shane nodded his acknowledgement. Sometimes he almost forgot about the other side of his girlfriend. The look in her eyes at that moment reminded him, that was for damn sure.


	9. Chapter 9

"With all of that being said, we should be ready to start production in a week or so. Two, at most."

Dwayne Johnson nodded his satisfaction. "Good work."

He was being given a tour of his meth lab by the man in charge on the construction team. Some bosses would have made a point of demanding that the project should be completed within the week, but not Johnson. If nothing else, he was a smart man. His people were working as fast as they could, and from what he could see they were doing a good job. There was no point in putting them under unnecessary pressure. It was better to make them feel like their hard work was appreciated.

Johnson's cell phone started chirping in his pocket. "We're done here. Carry on," he ordered and took the phone out of his pocket. When he saw the name on the display, a wide smile broke out on his face. This was a call that he'd been eagerly waiting for. He touched the screen, answering the call. "Good afternoon, Ms. Helmsley. How are you?"

"I'm not bad, Rock. If I can call you that, you can call me Ronda."

There was no particular tone in the voice of the boss of the Helmsley organisation, which didn't surprise him. It was no secret that Ronda Helmsley wasn't a diplomat; a real weakness in Johnson's opinion. He believed that politicking was one of the most important parts of being a boss, and an area where he could enjoy a distinct advantage over the dominant organisation in Warren City. "Okay," he said, making sure the smile was apparent in his voice. "So, did you have a chance to discuss our partnership with your people?"

"I'm not calling you to talk about the fucking weather."

The withering sarcasm caused Johnson's smile to fade, not that he let on in his tone. "Straight to the point, Ronda. I can respect that. Your decision, then?"

"I'll meet with you and your associate. If I decide I can work with him, then we have a deal. My people are behind it one hundred per cent. I think this could be very profitable for all of us."

"He is a she," Johnson clarified pleasantly. "I'll call her and set it up. Is tomorrow convenient for you? Can you come to my office?"

"That depends where it is."

There was an edge to the response again, which Johnson didn't miss. This chick needed to realise who she was speaking to, and she needed to realise it fast. Hiding what he was thinking, he calmly relayed the address of his office in Warren City. It was the HQ of a company that he'd recently bought out, which specialised in the production of medical, cleaning and car care products. "Can you make it tomorrow afternoon? Let's say two pm?"

"Two pm. I'll be there. I'm uh... looking forward to it."

Johnson wondered if that could have sounded any more awkward and faked if Ronda had tried to make it so. Probably not, he decided. "Excellent," he said as the smile returned. He decided to have a little bit of fun with his prospective new partner before ending the call. "Have a nice day, Ms. Helmsley."

After ending the call, he immediately scrolled through his contacts to make another. It didn't take long for it to be answered, and Johnson said, "They went for it. You can begin."

* * *

Paige Barrett didn't have the questionable honour of a job working for Helmsley. Part of her wondered if her husband wanted it that way; his way of making sure she was further removed from any of the dangers that came with being involved in that life. The truth was that Helmsley paid Barrett much more than they'd ever need to support the comfortable lifestyle that they enjoyed. Even so, Paige wouldn't have been comfortable with her husband being the only one earning, and lazing around the house all day definitely wasn't her style. That was why she had taken a job as a waitress at one of Warren City's finest restaurants.

On this particular day the lunch service had been very busy, so she was pleased to be walking out of the place after her shift, into the refreshing cool air. Her car was parked only a hundred yards or so away, but she didn't make it that far before being accosted from behind by a very loud, very angry, very drunk woman.

"Hey, bitch! You and your fucking crew are going to get what's yours one day! You just fucking wait!"

Paige knew who it was even before she sighed and turned around. Stacy Carter had been married to Jerry Lawler - one of many people who had been killed during the Helmsley purge of anyone associated with Roman Reigns. This wasn't the first time that Stacy had made a scene with one of the wives or girlfriends of Helmsley employees or even members of the inner circle. Usually, Paige might have let it slide and gotten into her car without saying anything, but her temper had already been worn thin during her shift. This was the breaking point.

"You do a lot of mouthing, Stacy," Paige snapped at the older woman, whose makeup was in as bad a state as her liver probably soon would be. "You go around the city chatting all this shit about people getting what's coming to them, yet nothing happens. I don't even work for Helmsley for fuck's sake, but you know what? If you want to come at me, let's fucking go! Come on, you disgusting little slag!"

Stacy squinted at Paige. The angry response obviously hadn't been what she was expecting. She said nothing, and definitely didn't show any interest in starting the fight that Paige had offered her. Paige was actually quite glad of that. Although she had lost her temper and offered to fight Stacy, she'd never had a fight before and wasn't all that keen to start now, not least because they were almost right outside of her place of work. There were people around too; some of them had already starting looking in the direction of the shouting. Paige decided to let it go and just get in her car and get out of there. The pathetic bitch wasn't worth the effort anyway. With a derogatory snort, she said, "I didn't think so. Piss off and go back to drinking yourself to death, huh?"

It was when Paige turned her back and opened her car door that Stacy made her move; rushing forward, grabbing Paige's head with her right hand and slamming it as hard as she could into the car's roof, just above the door. The younger woman collapsed into a heap on the sidewalk, blood already flowing from a cut that had opened up just below her right eye. Bystanders began to hurry towards the scene to help Paige. Seeing them coming, Stacy turned and fled the scene. She wanted to shout something smart over her shoulder as she went, but nothing came to mind. What she really needed was a drink to calm herself down.

By sheer coincidence, one of the bystanders was Camila, the woman who had been offered the job as Ronda and Shane's maid. One of Helmsley's men, a member of the security staff, was tailing her as ordered by Ronda. He was working on verifying the story that Camila had told the boss in their meeting the previous day. Resisting his instinct to dash over and help Wade Barrett's injured wife, he kept his distance as he watched Camila head over to Paige and the small group of other people who were trying to help her. Over the next couple of minutes, Camila took charge of the situation. Paige was helped first to a sitting position and then into the passenger seat of her car. It appeared that she had dismissed people's offers to call an ambulance or the police, and was instead asking Camila - who had presumably told Paige who she was and about her potential connection to the boss - to drive her somewhere. There was no choice other than to jog back to his car and follow.

* * *

 _Hunter's Bar_

Ronda realised that she'd made a mistake: she'd assigned all of the important roles within Helmsley's front businesses to people under her. While that was fine in principle, it left her without a job to do when there was nothing pressing going on with the meth side of the organisation. Sitting in her office at Marina Heights had been incredibly boring, which had started to wind her up, so she'd headed back to the bar.

"Hey boss," Rollins greeted her from behind the bar when he saw her walk in. "Everything okay?"

"No. I need a drink. Whisky, neat."

"You got it." Rollins set about fixing the drink while Ronda took a seat on a stool at the bar. When he set the glass on the bar in front of her, he asked, "Anything you want to talk about, or shouldn't I ask?"

Ronda took a sip of the whisky, savoring the burn. "I've decided I need a job. Aside from being the boss, obviously. When the deal goes through for Helmsley to buy out the Casino next to Marina Heights, I'm going to manage it. Well, Shane and I will."

"How's that deal going?"

"The Casino? It'll go through soon. Uncle Hunter got the ball rolling long before he left and no one dared to compete with him on it, for obvious reasons. It's all red tape and bullshit though, you know how it is. It takes ages to get something like that to go through, no matter who you are."

Rollins, a master of ass kissing without making it too obvious that he was doing so, nodded his understanding and smiled. "It's great to be a part of all of this, boss. I mean, Helmsley has always owned this city, but now we're really starting to own it. A lot of hard work paying off."

Ronda stared into her drink as she considered that. "Hard work and sacrifices," she mumbled, thinking of what Stephanie had gone through with Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner.

Before Rollins could reply, the bar's front doors crashed open. Ronda's head snapped around in that direction. What she saw made her jump up from her stool and rush over there. If Paige Barrett arriving covered in blood, with her right eyes swollen shut wasn't surprising enough, she was being helped into the bar by Camila, of all people.

"What the fuck?" Ronda demanded of Camila. "What's going on, and what are you doing here? Come on, help her sit down at the table."

"Some crazy woman smacked her head into her car," Camila said, leading Paige over to the closest empty table. "I told her she needs to be at the hospital but she insisted to come here. She was saying something about not being able to contact her husband. I knew she must be something to do with Helmsley to want to come here, so I decided to driver her here myself. I hope you don't mind me..."

Ronda held a hand up for silence and pulled out a wad of notes from her jacket pocket with the other. Babbling was definitely one of Camila's traits and it already drove Ronda crazy. When all was said and done though, the fact was that Camila had helped Paige and brought her to Hunter's when she could have just stayed out of whatever had happened. Counting out 200 dollars, Ronda held the notes out to Camila. "Thank you for bringing her here safely, Camila. I'll remember this. You can go now."

Camila thought about turning down the money as part of her thought it might be the right thing to do. Another part of her worried that doing so might seem like disrespect, and anyway, she did need the money badly. "Thank you, Ms. Helmsley," she said humbly, taking the money and putting it in her pocket.

"Go," Ronda ordered her. "I've got this from here."

Camila nodded and headed for the door as quickly as she could without breaking into a jog.

"Rollins!" Ronda yelled at the top of her voice, without looking back towards the bar. "Get some fucking ice and a towel out here and have someone get over here with a car! We need to get her to the hospital!"

"Need to call Wade," Paige mumbled.

She sounded out of it to Ronda, which wasn't surprising at all judging by the state of her eye. It had been a heavy blow to the head to say the least. Wade was working in the lab, so he wouldn't have his cell phone on him. It was something that Ronda or anyone else in the inner circle could work around easily, but Paige couldn't. She'd been smart enough to know that and head for Hunter's.

"I'll get in contact with him, Paige," Ronda assured her, sitting down beside her and taking one of her hands. One thing she definitely had learned from Hunter and Stephanie was that Helmsley looked after its people, and the boss had to lead by example in that regard. "I'll have him meet you at the hospital, which is where you should be now. You're going to need sutures in that cut and I don't like the look of that swelling either."

"Thank you," Paige groaned, squeezing Ronda's hand against the pain.

Rollins appeared with a towel and began to wipe away the worst of the blood, talking soothingly to Paige as he did so. Working on her busted cheek had to be painful for her, but Paige sucked it up as best she could and didn't protest or try to get him to stop. Ronda gave it a couple of minutes before asking the question that she wanted answered the most. "Who did this to you, Paige?"

"That fucking Stacy Carter bitch. You know, Jerry Lawler's wife? She came up to me mouthing off. I gave her a bit back, but then I decided she wasn't worth it. When I was getting into my car she grabbed me from behind and slammed my head into the roof."

"Ssssh now," Seth urged softly, pressing the ice onto Paige's cheek. "Someone's going to be here to take you to the hospital. Here, hold this ice on there. It'll slow the bleeding and help the swelling until we get you taken care of properly." As Paige took the ice from him, he glanced at Ronda. Seeing the look in her eyes and the hardness of her expression made him think that one thing was for sure: he was glad that he wasn't Stacy Carter. He could tell that the boss was about to snap. He'd seen the look before and he'd seen the violence that it resulted in.


	10. Chapter 10

It was five after noon when Stacy Carter walked into her local bar, The Friendly Tap. The fact that the place was a run down shit hole was of no interest to her. The beer was cheap; that was what mattered. A lot of people seemed to feel the same way as The Friendly Tap was always busy, if not packed. The crowd was about average on this particular lunch time. A lot of the faces started to become familiar when you drank in the same place every day. Most of the drunks had tried to make a move on her at least once, but Tim White, the owner, would always sort them out for her. He'd also always make sure that the stool at the far end of the bar was available for her when she arrived. She was switched on enough to know that this was because Tim wanted some action for himself. If her tab ever got too expensive, maybe he might even get his wish.

Stacy took her seat and ordered her first beer from Tim without giving so much as a glance to the woman sitting a couple of stools further down, who had a whisky in front of her. There was no reason for her to notice. The woman was dressed in much the same way as anyone else who drank in The Friendly Tap, including a Warren City Warriors cap. The city had a lot of baseball fans.

"There you are, sweetheart," Tim said as he set Stacy's beer in front of her. Stacy picked it up and eagerly made a start on the drink.

At the same time the woman further along the bar picked up her whisky and knocked it back in one hit. She calmly set the glass on the bar and stood up. Instead of leaving, she walked in the opposite direction. Stacy had just set her glass back down on the bar and was about to say something to Tim when her head was grabbed from behind and slammed face first onto the bar with incredible force. The attacker's cap fell off in the process. There were initial gasps and shouts of horror and alarm, but most of the people in the bar recognised the aggressor, so they backed off, not wanting to be involved in whatever was going down. Tim also made no move to step in.

Ronda was only just getting started, even though the sickening impact had damn near knocked Stacy out cold. "You want to fucking attack people from behind when they can't defend themselves?" Ronda screamed at her target. Without pausing for any kind of reply, she roughly spun Stacy around on her stool and delivered a vicious left hook to the right side of her face. The blow knocked Stacy clean out and sent her falling sideways off the stool to the floor, the wooden stool toppling over in the opposite direction.

Ronda took a couple of steps back from the unconscious Stacy, but she wasn't leaving; she was getting a run up to deliver a sickening kick to the head. When it connected with her jaw, there was an unmistakable crack - the bone breaking in several places. Breathing heavily from a combination of anger and adrenaline and grunting with the effort, Ronda kicking Stacy in the head again, and again, and again, each one as hard as she could. Each kicked produced a sound which grew increasingly sickening, as Stacy's face was mulched into an unrecognizable mess. After seven kicks, Ronda backed off again. For a few seconds she just stood there, breaths now coming in heaves, glaring down at her victim.

"You want to try and smash someone's face in? That's how you smash someone's fucking face in," she snarled before picking up the stool that Stacy had been sitting on by its legs. She raised it over her head, high in the air and swung it as hard as she could, crashing down onto Stacy's head, cracking her skull open like a pinata. If she hadn't been dead already, she definitely was now.

Backing off again, she turned her attention to bar's patrons, none of whom had dared to move the whole time. She glared around the room as she spoke, making sure that her voice was loud and clear enough for everyone to hear. "Most of you know who I am. Those who don't, should do. Take what just happened here as a reminder that this city belongs to Helmsley." She gestured at the mess on the floor in front of her. "And that's what happens to anyone who fucks with us."

No one responded.

Ronda reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a wad of cash. She counted out almost half of it and tossed it onto the bar near to where Tim was standing, a dumbstruck expression of shock on his face. "Pay for her her fucking funeral, and get these ladies and gentlemen a drink on me. Oh, and when the cops show up, I was never here. Anyone who thinks it might be in their best interests to say different..." She gestured towards Stacy's remains again, this time with her head. The message was quite clear.

Satisfied, Ronda bent down, picked up her cap, put it back on and walked out of The Friendly Tap. One of Rusev's security detail was leaning against the wall outside, waiting for her. She didn't waste time asking what he was doing there or how he knew where she was. The answers were obvious anyway: Rusev's people followed her everywhere, albeit sometimes discreetly. "Drive me home," she ordered as she strode past him. "I have to change and get to a meeting."

* * *

Shane had met Ronda back at the mansion so that they could travel to the meeting with Dwayne Johnson and his associate together. For the time being she had decided not to mention the fact that she had taken matters into her own hands and dealt with Stacy Carter herself. She knew he wouldn't be best pleased with the way she had gone about it, and this wasn't the time for a discussion like that. Worrying about dealing with Dwayne Johnson and his so far mystery associate was bad enough.

It was the first piece of important Helmsley business that Ronda had needed to attend to since Shane's release from prison, so it was also his first time taking on the role of the boss' right hand man rather than her partner. It was a rather strange adjustment to make; one that he imagined would take some time to get used to. They were being driven to the address that Johnson had provided in one of their SUVs; a member of the security team driving, Shane and Ronda sitting in the back.

"This is the place just up here," the driver announced as the vehicle began to slow.

"Business time," Ronda said quietly to Shane. "I was a bit snappy with him on the phone earlier. I need to remember that I can't let it show that I don't like people if I have to work with them. Fuck, Uncle Hunter was so good at this and I have no clue what I'm doing."

"Just try and reign yourself in a bit, babe. Take a second before you say something if you feel you're getting wound up. You know I love the fire you have inside you, but when you're talking to people like this isn't a time to show it, it's a time to control it. Okay?"

Ronda looked into his eyes and took confidence from the love that she saw in them. He truly believed that she could do it. She had to do it. "I'll do my best," she promised him. "Thank you, honey. I love you."

The SUV pulled into the parking lot in front of their destination. "Are you coming in with me?" Ronda asked Shane.

"Of course. I'm your right hand man. It's my job to do everything you used to do for Hunter, remember?"

"Right." Ronda shook her head at her stupid question. "Depending on what was being discussed I'd wait either inside or outside the door and make sure no one went in unless I was happy for them to be in the room with Uncle Hunter. Alright, let's go."

A few minutes later a young male receptionist was showing them into Dwayne Johnson's outer office. The company's offices were standard fare: modern, expensive, but unremarkable decoration and furniture. There was a middle aged woman with long dark hair sitting at a desk; Johnson's secretary. "Victoria, this is Ms. Helmsley," the receptionist announced. With a respectful nod to Ronda, he turned and left.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Helmsley," Victoria smiled and gestured to the door to Johnson's office, which stood open. "You can go right in, they're ready for you. Can I get you coffee? Tea?"

"No, thank you," Ronda replied and headed for the open door.

Shane hadn't taken no offence at not being introduced or addressed as he knew that no offence was intended. Ronda was the one who was here to conduct business, not him. When she walked into the office he heard Johnson wish her a good afternoon, and then the door closed behind her.

"Coffee for you, sir?" Victoria asked him.

"Please. Cream, one sugar."

There were several seats in the outer office, only one of them in use. The huge, dark skinned meathead who sat in the corner of the room could only have looked the part more if he had the word security tattooed on his forehead. Shane took a seat nearer to the door and settled in for what he knew might be a long wait, or might not be if things went wrong. He just had to hope for the best.


	11. Chapter 11

"Good afternoon, Ronda. Good to see you." Dwayne Johnson smiled broadly at his guest and offered his hand. Although it was tempting, he'd decided not to try and irritate her again by calling her Ms. Helmsley.

Ronda pushed the door closed, reminding herself to be careful not to slam it as she did so. It was all about looking like she wanted to be here, and that she respected this guy and wanted to work with him, even though the opposite was true. "Morning, Rock." She accepted his handshake. "Nice place you've got here."

Her attention shifted to the other person in the room: an olive skinned woman with long black hair, who looked to be a similar age to Ronda. The woman had just stood up from her chair, with a cup of coffee in her left hand and a hint of a smile on her face. She offered her hand as Johnson handled the introductions.

"Ronda Helmsley, meet Laura Molinaro. Laura, Ronda."

Accepting the handshake, Ronda said, "Nice to meet you, Laura." She did her best to get the strange pronunciation right. Judging by the surname, she had to guess that it was Italian. When Laura spoke, her New York accent all but confirmed it.

"Good to meet you at last, Ronda. You should try the coffee, it's worth it."

"I'll take something a little stronger, if it's on offer?" Ronda looked at Johnson, who gave a slight laugh.

"You got it. Whisky, right? I'll join you." As he made his way to the drinks table in the corner of the room he gestured to the expensive leather chairs that had been arranged in front of his desk, ready for the impending discussion. "Please, take a seat."

Ronda took the closest chair to her and sat down. Laura had just retaken her seat and was sipping at her coffee. Ronda studied her while trying not to make it obvious that she was doing so. There was nothing to distinguish her from any of the other countless people that she'd seen Hunter do business with in the past: good looking, expensive business suit and watch, wedding ring. Something reminded her to stop acting like she was the right hand woman and act like the boss. She didn't have to study this person; she was here to speak with her. That was the real way to find out about someone in the world of business. What she needed was an ice breaker; something to get the conversation started. Nothing came to mind.

' _Fuck! I'm fucking useless at this! Uncle Hunter, I'm going to let you down._ '

"So you're in shipping?" she blurted out at the woman, surprising herself with the fact that it actually didn't sound too awkward and also that it wasn't offensive in any way.

"Yes," the woman nodded. "You must have heard of LGM? We're one of the biggest logistics companies on the east coast, if not the biggest."

Ronda's mind traveled back in time the instant she heard the company name.

 _She was on the roof of an apartment block, adjusting her sniper rifle's scope. Half a mile away, Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner had just pulled their car into the warehouse where they were going to meet with Hunter. Her Aunt Stephanie was in one of the cars, bound and gagged and in incredible pain, if she was even still alive. Ronda's anger made her lift her head from the scope for a moment and close her eyes. Composure. She needed to make the shot on Nicole first time, at any given moment should the opportunity present itself. Composure. She opened her eyes again. Before she looked back down the scope, her attention momentarily turned to the huge logo on the front of the warehouse. LGM. Huge letters, one in green, one in white and the last in red._

Laura was still speaking. Ronda snapped out of her unpleasant memories and heard, "Rumor has it, I have you to thank for filling one of my warehouses with corpses and police not too long ago."

There was no way Ronda could stop herself snapping at that. She didn't even consider the fact that she'd just found out that she wasn't the only hot tempered woman in the room who could at times engage her mouth before her brain. Her voice turned fierce, but ice cold at the same time. "Nicole Reigns abducted my aunt, had her tortured and raped while she stood there making a video of it to send to me and my uncle, and I have no doubt planned to kill her in that warehouse. Maybe you better tell me how much you fucking knew about that at the time?"

"Let's try and remain calm," Johnson said softly. He'd appeared at Ronda's side, offering her a glass with a not insubstantial amount of whisky in it. "All three of us suffered due to the unpleasantness that went on a couple months ago. We're trying to move on and work together, are we not?"

"Yeah," Ronda said, failing to completely hide her reluctance to accept the reality of it. Johnson took his seat and made himself comfortable. Ronda raised her glass in the air and proposed a somber toast. "To the lost."

Johnson studied her for a second. If anything, his expression looked curious. She wondered if he thought she might be trying to wind him up. It wasn't true, but she did find herself liking the fact that he might think it was. The truth was that she was drinking to the memory of her father and everyone else who had given up their lives in the service of Helmsley. She also found herself thinking of Hunter and Stephanie. They were alive, but they weren't in Warren City anymore. They too had been lost, just in a different sense. At that moment she would have liked nothing more than to call Hunter and ask him to come back, even if it meant she had to give control of Helmsley back to him. It was totally understandable that Stephanie had wanted to get away after what had happened to her, and that Hunter had agreed without hesitation, but no one had seemed to consider how it would affect Ronda. If Shane hadn't been let out of jail early she would have been alone. Without his calm head, reassurance and advice, she couldn't imagine what direction she would have ended up leading her people in.

"To the lost," her host repeated, raising his glass and taking a large sip of his whisky. Laura raised her coffee and drank.

"If I can start us out," Johnson said, "I'd like to give you a little background, Ronda, on why we're sitting here with Laura today. As she said, LGM are possibly the biggest logistics company on the east coast. For the past several years they've also been transporting product of the nature that we're here to discuss today out of Florida for me. At the time when Helmsley clashed with my cousin, he and Laura were in the early stages of setting up a similar arrangement from Warren City."

"That's why Nicole and Steiner were able to access the warehouse," Ronda realised, thinking out loud.

"Yes," Laura agreed, matter of fact. "What happened between your people and Roman and Nicole Reigns' people frankly isn't any of my concern. I won't insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise. I'm here to make money distributing product. That's all. It's a simple logistical problem when you break it down. Rock will attest to the fact that I'm able to move significant quantities, and we've never once had an issue."

Ronda felt more at home with this no nonsense style way of discussing things. Maybe working with this woman wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. "Since we're speaking plainly here, which I like, I have to say that I'm willing to agree to working with you. You're going to be moving product for Rock, from his lab, made by his people. He's going to be paying whatever you charge him out of his end of our deal. It's not really my concern how you do what you do."

Johnson sipped at his whisky. With a slight edge to his voice, he said, "I don't believe you're really on-board with this partnership of ours yet, Ronda. LGM aren't moving _my_ product for _me_ , they're moving _our_ product for _us_. You're not making your percentage for doing nothing. The lab that's about to go into operation is a joint venture. Its production and distribution are as much your concern as mine."

Ronda grinned, then let out a quiet laugh. Even she wasn't that green in the world of business. "Come on, Rock. I wasn't born yesterday. The deal we agreed was that you pay me a percentage for allowing you to set up here. All I agreed to do was have my chemist work in your lab so that you can produce our product, which is in high demand. Don't try and change what we shook hands on after the fact, or the deal is off. I might be new to this, but I'm not a fucking idiot. Your lab, your production, your transport, your people? They're your problems, not mine."

Although she said nothing, Laura seemed to be enjoying the jousting. "I'd still expect you to show an interest," Johnson said, unmoved by Ronda's comeback. "If there are details to work out or problems occur, it's in both of our best interests to work on it."

It seemed to Ronda that she was being tested by this guy, that he was probing for weaknesses or signs of naivety. He was going to find himself out of luck. She knocked back her whisky, sensing that this meeting wasn't going to be a long one at all. "Like I said, you're paying me because you're working in my city, that's it. Sell product and give me my cut. I don't want to know about problems, I just want to see money. I've met Laura, she seems like the kind of person I'd like to do business with. No nonsense, no bullshit, and she knows what she's doing. My position couldn't be any clearer as far as how I see this partnership. I also said nothing was agreed until after this meeting; so, do we have a deal or not?"

Johnson let the silence hang in the air while he finished off his whisky. A smile broke out on his face. "Very well, Ronda. We have a deal. Laura and I will work on the finer points of the distribution side of things."

"I don't need to be here for that," Ronda said, standing up. "Any issues that I need to be aware of, you know how to contact me. Cook your product, sell it, pay me my cut. Everyone's making money, everyone's happy."

As Johnson stood up, he said, "Then I'll be in touch when we're ready to start producing, so you can have your chemist come work with us." He extended his hand. It was time to make the partnership official.

Part of Ronda wondered if she was doing the right thing. Another part of her cursed her for doubting herself. When all was said and done, she saw no other option. She'd been over this with her inner circle when they'd voted on the partnership the day before. The deal had to be done. She accepted his handshake, matching the firmness of his grip. "Call me," was all she could think of to say.

Laura had also stood up and now offered Ronda a business card. "Good to meet you Ronda. I know you have your own setup already, but if you ever need to outsource, you know who to call."

Ronda just nodded at that and took the card. After shaking hands with Laura she turned and left the office. When the door closed behind her, Laura turned to Johnson, a hint of a grin on her face. "Strange woman."

A derogatory grunt was the initial response. "An animal in a suit is what she is. Roman used to call her the guard dog. And she's so naive too. She couldn't have been in here ten minutes, to agree on a partnership of this importance. You know what they say: you can polish a piece of shit, but it's still a piece of shit."

"How colourful."

* * *

 _The Friendly Tap_

Sheriff Melina Perez got out of her patrol car and walked around it, heading for the bar's front entrance. One of her junior officers was standing just outside, waiting for her arrival. He looked rather pale. "What have we got?" she asked him.

"It's Stacy Carter, ma'am." The name was familiar to Melina. Stacy had been arrested multiple times recently for offences relating to drink. "Well, what's left of her. Her skull's been crushed and her face is unrecognisable. Looks like someone gave her a thorough kicking. The owner, Tim White, I.D'd her. He's inside."

"Did he tell you who did it?"

"No, ma'am. Insists he doesn't know; says he was in the back. He also claims he didn't hear anything going on. He just walked back into the bar and found all of his customers gone, aside from Stacy, obviously."

"Bullshit," Melina snapped.

"Yes, ma'am. And so is the fact the the CCTV cameras 'weren't working' at the time."

Before she even went in to look at the body or ask any questions, Melina was already almost certain who was responsible for Stacy's murder, if not specifically. No witnesses to a murder in a public place, and no security camera feed. People afraid for their own lives above all else. It had Helmsley written all over it. And that was without considering the fact that Stacy had been making a nuisance of herself with Helmsley's people for the past few weeks. The open and graphic nature of the killing strongly suggested Ronda Helmsley herself. The rest of them at least had the sense to be more discreet if they decided to kill someone. This was exactly the kind of thing that she'd specifically told Ronda not to do again. She wanted to scream or kick something in anger, but her officer was standing in front of her, looking at her expectantly, waiting to be given an order.

Composing herself as best she could, she took out her cell phone. "Go inside and get the owner ready for me to question him. I'll be there in a couple of minutes."

"Yes, ma'am."

The officer headed back inside the bar as Melina scrolled through her phone's list of contacts. She walked slowly away from the bar, just to be sure of being out of earshot. The entry saved as 'Mom's Cell' was actually Hunter Helmsley's number. It never took him long to answer.

* * *

Hunter glanced over at Stephanie as he picked up his chirping cell phone. They were lying on sun loungers in their villa's garden, soaking up some rays. "Melina."

"Hunter. The problem we talked about before? I've got Jerry Lawler's wife lying in a bar with her head crushed to a pulp. No witnesses, no security camera footage. She's been running her mouth some at your people these past few weeks, now this happens. It could hardly be more obvious that it's Ronda. She's going to end up dragging the FBI in here and we're all going to be fucked. She's out of control. You need to come back and deal with this, and fast."

"Stop panicking. I can't just come back, you know that. You know why we came here."

His words unsurprisingly caught Stephanie's attention. She turned to look at him and lifted her sunglasses, a questioning expression on her face, which he ignored for now.

"I didn't say _move_ back, I said _come_ back. You need to get your niece under control. You're the only one she listens to."

"Remember who you're talking to, and remember who you're talking about," Hunter warned her. "I _can_ see why you're concerned though. I'll deal with it. You worry about making sure this gets cleaned up without the feds getting wind of it."

"This has to be the last time, Hunter."

"I said I'll deal with it," Hunter growled at her. He ended the call before she could say anything more.

It took restraint for him not to hurl the phone down the garden, but he did get to his feet and start pacing. His frustration was so close to boiling over. Living in Barbados and living the easy life would have been a dream for a lot of people. Not Hunter. He missed Warren City. He missed being the boss. His people were there. His empire was there. His niece was there. His life was there. The first few weeks in Barbados had been like a pleasant vacation, but being away had been slowly driving his crazy for the past few weeks. And now there were problems developing. Melina's had been the second concerning call of they day that he'd received about Ronda and the business. Seth Rollins had made sure to keep him in the loop regarding Helmsley business, so he knew about the partnership with Dwayne Johnson, and he wasn't happy about it at all. There was no way he would have trusted a relation of Roman Reigns, regardless of any other circumstances. Now there was this very public murder at a very bad time to add to the list of things that were making his blood boil. It was too much.

"Fuck!" he yelled. "I fucking knew she wasn't ready. It's not even her fault either. I was supposed to spend at least ten more fucking years mentoring her before she took over. Steph, we have to go back."

"Hunter, I'm not sure if I..."

"We shouldn't have left, Steph. A vacation or something yes, but not putting Ronda in charge, not yet. She wasn't ready. Now we're really fucked, because I can't go back and take control back from her. That would break her heart as well as destroying everyone's respect for her." He paused and shook his head at the utter mess that the situation had become, thanks in his mind to Roman Reigns. "We need to go back, Steph. Ronda needs our help and we need be there for her."

Stephanie became indignant. "Oh, so now it's Ronda over me? Even after what I went through?"

"Do not even _think_ about starting that 'Ronda over me' jealousy shit again. We got past that a long time ago, and I'm really not in the fucking mood for it today. We adopted Ronda. She's our baby girl and she needs us right now, whether she knows it or not. She probably does know that she's out of her depth, but she doesn't want to ask for help. You know how she can be sometimes."

" _We_ adopted her?" Stephanie snorted, ignoring the rest of what he'd said. "I don't remember having much of a say in it."

That was the final straw. It angered Paul to the point that he became the boss rather than the husband, something that was rare when he spoke to Stephanie. She saw the fire in his eyes as he stared down at her. "Remind me again, who was it who killed her dad? Oh yeah, it was you. You got drunk and ended up in bed with him. You were going to fuck him, until it dawned on you that I'd kill the pair of you if you did and I found out, so you stuck a pair of scissors in the side of his neck and told me that he was trying to rape you. You think the poor girl should've had to grow up an orphan because of _that_?"

Rather than back down, Stephanie jumped to her feet and screamed at him, "Yes! I don't think we should have fucking cared! Why did we have to give a fuck about Ronda Rousey? But I did what you wanted, the same as I always do! What Hunter Helmsley wants, Hunter Helmsley gets, right? So I went along with it! I raised someone else's daughter like she was my own, even though I didn't want to! I never let on to her, not even fucking once! And I went along with the bullshit you told her about that bunch of guys killing the son of a bitch! And I said nothing while she went out and killed those people; hunted them down like fucking animals! And for what?"

"To cover your ass, you stupid bitch!" Hunter roared back at her. "I had to tell her something about her dad. She knew he worked for me. What was _your_ fucking plan? Wait for the day that she was old enough and go 'Yeah, I killed your daddy. Hope you don't mind?'?"

"I'll tell you what my plan was!" Stephanie shrieked back, and then stopped herself, too late.

It was the worst thing to do, as Hunter immediately picked up on it and the way her expression changed. He walked up to her and stood over her. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, menacing. "Go on then, tell me what your plan was?"

"Nothing, Hunter," Stephanie floundered, taking a step back, only for her legs to hit the sun lounger. He matched her step, leaving her with nowhere to go. "I was just mouthing off, baby. I didn't mean anything, honestly."

"You never were a good liar. I want to know what you meant by that, and I want to know now."

Stephanie was trapped, both figuratively and literally. "Hunter, please calm down. I didn't mean any of it. I just over reacted and started mouthing, I swear. It's hard after what happened to think of going back there, but you're right, Ronda needs us. Let's go pack, shall we?" Her words flowed out almost too fast to be understandable, and her hands were shaking.

The look in Hunter's eyes didn't soften at all. If anything, he grew even angrier and his voice sounded even more menacing. "Tell me what you meant. Now."

Stephanie gulped and her bottom lip began to tremble. There was no choice other than to tell him. He would know if she lied again. "I was going to have someone run her down and kill her, make it look like an accident," she stammered. "But I didn't. I started to love her, Hunter, like you do. I love her."

Hunter's fists were clenched together at his sides. He knew that he had to get away from Stephanie before he did something he'd regret. Instead of strangling his wife, he spat in her face. "Love her? You vile piece of shit. You considered having someone _kill_ our... _my_ baby girl, for no other reason than pathetic jealousy? Even though you knew how much it would hurt me? And even though Ronda had done nothing wrong at all. She was a fucking kid!"

"I didn't do it though," Stephanie squeaked out, not even daring to wipe the saliva away as it slid down her cheek. She could feel the rage radiating out of him, and she was genuinely afraid for her life. In all the years she'd known him, she'd hardly ever seen him this angry, and certainly not with her.

"That girl saved your life in that warehouse," Hunter snarled at her, looking at her like she was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. "I need to get out of here. I'm going back tonight, and you're not coming with me. I don't want to have to set eyes on you." With that, he stormed into the villa and up the stairs. His intention was to pack a case and get out of there asap. He could worry about getting a flight back to Warren City when he got to the airport. All he wanted to do was get away from Stephanie before he did something that even he would regret.

"Oh, you remember what happened to me then?" Stephanie yelled after him. "And whose fault was it that I had to go through that? You and your 'baby girl'! You were the ones who decided to kill Roman Reigns!" The fact that Stephanie had been totally on-board with the idea at the time seemed to have conveniently been forgotten.

Following Hunter upstairs and continuing to mouth at him would have been another big mistake, and Stephanie knew it. She rushed into the villa and grabbed the keys to their Ferrari off the coffee table in the living room. "She's not your blood, Hunter!" she screamed up the stairs as a parting shot. "She's not even a Helmsley and she's in charge of everything you built, and she's ruining it! I hope you're happy!"

Upstairs, Hunter was angrily throwing some of his clothes into a case, intending to get out of there asap. He could worry about getting a flight back to Warren City when he got to the airport. All he wanted to do right at that moment was get away from Stephanie and back to Warren City and Ronda. Images kept coming into his head of a her as a ten year old child, the age which they'd adopted her, lying battered and broken in the middle of a road somewhere. Dead. The knowledge that his wife had even considered doing that to her, even for a single solitary second, was unforgivable in his mind.

Through the open window he heard the distinctive sound of their Ferrari's engine revving, followed by tyres screeching. He rushed around the bed in time to see Stephanie disappearing up the street. "Yeah, you'd better fuck off. Fucking piece of shit."


	12. Chapter 12

_Helmsley Mansion_

The evening should have been relaxing for Ronda. It should have been a chance to unwind. Shane had cooked them a delicious dinner - roasted monkfish with black olive sauce - which they had both enjoyed, along with one of the finest white wines from the cellar. It would likely be the last meal he prepared for them for some time as she had decided to give Camila the job as a maid. The man who had been following her had reported that her story seemed to check out, and Camila had helped Paige when she'd been hurt by Stacy Carter. It was good enough for Ronda. What had stopped her from feeling at ease over dinner was the fact that she had a confession to make to Shane. Now relaxing on a couch in one of their living rooms, she watched him walk back into the room after a visit to the bathroom.

Something must have shown on her face or in her eyes because he asked, "What's wrong?" as he re-took his seat next to her.

"Today," she began with a sigh. "I did something you're not going to pleased about." It wasn't that she felt like she had to answer to him as such. Strictly speaking, when business was concerned she was the boss and didn't have to answer to anyone. That wasn't how she intended to treat Shane though; it would obviously be very bad for their relationship. Hunter had always trusted Stephanie with the details of the business and his actions relating to it, and he was the one she was trying to model herself on.

"You said the meeting went well," Shane said, confused.

"It did. I'm not talking about the meeting. I'm talking about before that, before I came and met you here. Remember I told you last night that Stacy Carter smashed Paige's face into her car?"

"Oh Christ," Shane sighed. "Don't tell me you went and beat her up in retaliation?"

"Kind of," Ronda admitted, as close to sheepish as she was ever likely to get. "I found out where she drinks and I went down there. She came in and I... well, I kicked her face in."

Shane closed his eyes for a second, trying to avoid snapping at her. "That really wasn't a good idea, babe. Now what's going to happen when she tells the cops who did it? Perez warned us off attracting any more attention. You know that..."

"You don't understand," Ronda cut in. "I didn't say I kicked her face in as some kind of... whatever you call it, to say that I gave her a beating. I actually did kick her face in, then I cracked her head open like a watermelon with a stool. She's dead."

Unsure how to react, Shane gave himself a moment to think. Being the boss' boyfriend was an awkward situation. He could hardly lose his cool and start reading her the riot act, as tempting as it was. In any event, she seemed to already know that she'd done something that wasn't in the best interests of Helmsley, as she had been reluctant to talk about it. The question now was what was going to happen as a result.

Filling the silence, Ronda added, "I just wanted to send a message that Helmsley and our people aren't to be fucked with just because Uncle Hunter left."

"You certainly sent that message," Shane admitted. "What about the witnesses though? You said you did this in a bar? Christ. This could be a real mess, Ron."

"No one's going to say anything. I made sure they understood that they'd get the same treatment as her if they did. And the guy who owns the bar knows what'd happen to his precious little shit hole if he said anything. I had one of Rusev's guys go back and remind him that nothing better show on his CCTV either. Perez will know this was Helmsley and she'll cover it up."

"You put a lot of faith in her."

"Uncle Hunter always did," she shrugged. "Besides, she knows that if I go down so does she. That woman is concerned about two things: money and staying out of jail. I'm not sure in which order. She'll no doubt give me some shit for this, I'll throw some money at her and we'll go on as normal."

Shane had to admit that Ronda must know how Melina had been doing business with Helmsley during the time that he'd spent in jail, so he couldn't really argue the point. "No more violence though, babe. We talked about this. We need not to attract attention right now, okay?"

"No more violence unless it's in defense, I promise." She leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips, looking lovingly into his eyes. "I love you."

"I love you too," Shane said softly. He was about to take her hand and lead her upstairs, but she stood and headed for the door, complaining about the fact that she'd left the wine in the dining room. More wine, then sex. It worked for him.

The dining room was on the opposite side of the expansive entrance hall. Ronda was halfway across, in front of the grand staircase, when she heard a noise outside the front door. It sounded like something heavy being dropped to ground. Or something heavy falling to the ground. Sensing a possible threat, her military instincts took over. Nicole Reigns had assaulted the mansion before and managed to get in after taking out the security detail. True, Rusev's people were much more suitable for the job and much better trained, but anything was possible. Turning back, she rushed into the living room, flicking off the lights in the entrance hall in the process. If someone was trying to get in, they were going to have a very nasty surprise waiting for them.

"What's going on?" Shane asked, getting up from the couch and walking over to her.

The pistol that she often carried had been left on the small table near the door. She picked it up and took cover against the door frame, taking the safety off the gun. "Get back. I heard something outside. I think someone's trying to get in."

Shane backed off away from the door. He had no weapon on him and couldn't get to the mansion's armory without going into the hallway. It was too late anyway because at that moment they both heard a distinctive squeak from the hall. The front door had been opened. The security detail knew that they were not allowed in the house at night under any circumstances other than a specific order from Ronda or Rusev to do so. Even if one of them had decided to enter, they had keys. Ronda couldn't imagine a reason why they would have been crashing about out there. Pivoting around the door frame, she flicked on the lights and pointed her pistol at the intruder in one fluid motion, ready to drop them where they stood.

"Don't fucking move!"

"Is that the welcome I get?" The intruder laughed as he raised his hands. It was no intruder at all. He'd had to let go of the handle of his travel case, which toppled to the floor with a thud, a similar sound to what Ronda had heard outside the front door. "That damn thing falls over every time I let go of it."

"Uncle Hunter!" Ronda cried out in delight. She put the safety back on the gun and tossed it back into the living room towards the couch that she and Shane had been sitting on. Shane was now laughing thanks to the relief of tension. Ronda rushed over to her uncle, meeting him halfway and grabbing him in a tight embrace. It felt so good to see him, let alone to hug him.

"Sure you're not going to shoot me?" he asked, still laughing. He wrapped his huge arms around his niece and held her tightly to him, thinking about what Stephanie had admitted to him earlier in the day. What he always loved was that Ronda was so cold and hard most of the time, but not with him, or he had to admit, with Stephanie. With them she was like a regular daughter, who very much adored her parents. There was no doubt about the fact that if she had indeed been his child, Ronda would have been a daddy's girl.

"I missed you so much," she told him, as if it wasn't obvious from the way she was holding him as if he might vanish if she let go.

"I missed you too, baby girl." He almost whispered it to her. It was something of a private term of endearment, and one that he would always use no matter how old she was.

After a long moment which they both savored, they pulled apart. Ronda wondered what might happen next. She didn't know why her uncle was back, or more importantly, how he was going to react to Shane. Was he back because he was angry that they were together? Was he here to confront Shane about it? There was no doubt about the fact that he was protective of her, but he had agreed not to stand in the way of her relationship. If that remained true, was he back for another reason? And would he in fact be pleased to see Shane for the first time in more than four and a half years outside of visitation in jail? And then there was the final question: why was he alone? He'd only brought one case into the hall and had closed the door behind him. Stephanie wasn't with him.

Ronda stood aside and watched as Hunter walked over to Shane, who had walked out of the living room but hadn't approached much further. "Hunter," Shane greeted him evenly, which told Ronda that he was thinking along very similar lines.

The two men stood in front of each other, looking eye to eye, and Ronda could feel the tension between them. It was horrible for her. For a moment she really thought that Hunter was going to take a swing at her boyfriend. Instead, he raised his right hand and offered it to Shane. "Shane. It's good to see you."

They shook hands and then embraced each other. "Great to see you too, man." The tension had evaporated. The unspoken message had been clear from Hunter though: upset Ronda and things will go very differently, fast.

"Feels strange coming here and it not being my house," Hunter said, turning back to Ronda. "I was going to check into a hotel, but..."

"Don't be silly," she giggled, gesturing for them to head into the living room. "Whether you signed it over to me or not, this is your house and it always will be."

"Where's Steph?" Shane asked, making a start on the list of questions that they both had.

"Can I get a drink? Then we'll have a talk."

"Sure," Shane said. "Whisky?"

"That'd be good."

Hunter and Ronda sat down in the living room and made small talk about Barbados for a couple of minutes while Shane headed to the kitchen and fixed the drink. When he brought the glass into the living room and handed it over, Shane got right back to his previous question. "So, why isn't Steph with you?"

After taking a sip of his drink, Hunter relaxed back into the couch that he was sitting on with a tired groan. Shane sat down on the other one, beside Ronda. "She's fine, but she wasn't ready to come back yet. To be honest, it's that simple. There are things here that I had to come back and deal with, and she didn't feel like she could come back with me. So, for the time being, I'm living here and she's living there. It's not ideal, but it is what it is."

"If you're sure she's okay..." Shane sounded skeptical.

"Alright, I'll be upfront with you. You and Ronda both deserve that. Steph and I did have an argument about me coming back, but by the time I left she was okay. Why don't you call her in the morning? I'm sure she'd like to hear from you. She wanted me to stay over there, but it was driving me crazy. You both know me; taking it easy isn't in my nature. I wanted to be back here, back home, back with Ronda, and back involved with the business."

To say that Shane didn't look convinced would have been an understatement. He chose not to push any further though, deciding to speak to Stephanie the next day as Hunter had suggested. Meanwhile, Ronda looked crestfallen. "Back involved in the business?" she asked her uncle. "You mean you're back in charge and I'm out?"

"I didn't say that. I gave you control because I thought... No, not thought, I _know_ you're capable of leading the business. I wouldn't want to hurt you by taking control off you after only a few weeks. Not only that, it would send the wrong message to the rest of the guys. No, I'm not here to take control back from you. What I do think though, and this is not meant to sound disrespectful, is that you need some mentoring. My original plan was to spend probably the next ten years making sure you were totally comfortable with everything that's required of the boss of an organisation like ours. Thanks to that fucking bitch Nicole Reigns, it didn't work out that way. That's not your fault, Ronda. What I want to do, what I think is the best course of action, is to give you that mentoring now, but with you remaining in charge."

As he listened, Shane had to admit that what Hunter was saying made sense. The truth of it was that Ronda wasn't really ready to lead; even she knew that deep down, which was why she'd been so uncharacteristically lacking confidence in herself since he'd gotten out of jail. Being diplomatic and thinking things through meticulously before acting were key requirements of the boss, and she wasn't good at either of them. Not yet. Hunter wasn't perfect, but he'd built his empire from nothing. No one could argue that he didn't know what he was doing. Further mentoring for Ronda was best for her and for Helmsley, and they were two of the things that mattered most in life to Shane.

"I think mentoring is a good idea, honestly," he said when Hunter finished speaking. "You're saying Ron should remain in charge, which I also think is the best decision, so you're best position to mentor her is by being her second in command." He looked at Ronda to see what she thought of all of it and saw that she looked a little bewildered, like it was all coming at her a bit too fast.

"Wait," she asked him. "You're my second in command. You're happy to give that up?"

"It's for the best, babe, for you and for Helmsley. Those things are what matter here."

Hunter nodded his respect at that as Ronda took one of Shane's hands and held it in her lap. She wasn't sure if she'd ever felt more proud of her man that she did at that moment, and seeing that her uncle also respected what he'd said also meant a lot.

"Okay then," she said. "Uncle Hunter, you're second in command. Fuck, this all sounds so weird. I have to ask though, what did I do wrong? I mean, why did you decide that you had to come back?"

Hunter's expression hardened and his eyes seemed to grow darker somehow. She was now talking to the man who had been the boss for so many years, not her loving uncle. "This business with working with this Dwayne Johnson asshole. Helmsley should never be working with a member of that family, regardless of any other circumstances. I'd never have allowed it."

"Trust me, I didn't fucking want to," Ronda assured him indignantly. "I had Perez in my face about the feds, we've hardly got any weapons, and we've recently lost some men. I didn't see another choice. And Uncle Hunter, I had it voted on in the back room, I did it properly."

"I don't doubt it. But in this case, I say a mistake was made. I say fuck working with this prick. I say there's no way he's any more legit about this partnership than I would be if I was in his position. He's got something up his sleeve, and it's going to involve attacking Helmsley somehow."

Again, Shane couldn't really find a way to argue. No one had found it easy to believe that Dwayne Johnson was legit, but not working with him promised to drop them into another world of issues: those which Ronda had just mentioned.

"If we don't work with him though, we have only one option," Ronda said.

"Right. I say we get us some weapons, we put together a plan, and we hit this fucker. We hit him and we hit him hard. We take them all out."

"Trust me, there's nothing I'd like to do more than that. I just told you though, Perez has the feds crawling up her ass. We start killing more people, we're fucked. All of us."

"That didn't stop you this morning, did it?" The question came out sounding a little more cutting than Hunter had intended.

"You know about that?" Ronda quickly pieced that together in her head. "Perez called you didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did. She's getting real twitchy about the feds. I've not known her like this before. I really do think they're going to show up, which is why I think we should take a course of action that you rightly didn't consider when you were voting on this partnership."

Ronda and Shane glanced at each other quizzically before she asked, "What course of action that we didn't consider?"

"We shut down the meth lab. We stop producing. We stop anything involving drugs. We go legit."

Ronda was staring at him, looking dumbfounded. The colour seemed to have drained from her face. "This is your empire," she stammered. "You built it. Now you want to shut it down?"

"Just the drugs. Think about it, Ron. We own half the city. Helmsley makes more than enough money for us to never have to worry about it again as long as we live from the other businesses we own, and that's before we buy the casino. At this point we're risking all of us going to jail to make money that we don't even need."

No one said anything for a long moment. Ronda looked down at her hands, which were intertwined with Shane's in her lap. Closing down the Helmsley meth lad was something that she would never have imagined having to do. Every instinct told her to rebel against the idea, but some part of her also knew that what Hunter said made sense. The empire was far beyond self sustaining without the drug money. Hunter was talking about running a legitimate business rather than a criminal enterprise.

"I think what you say makes a lot of sense," Shane said. "We should get around the table again and vote on it."

Ronda took a deep breath, summoning all the courage she could find. "If we do this, you need to be back in charge, Uncle Hunter. I'm not a businesswoman. We all know that. I have no clue about that kind of thing. I can't do it. I'm willing to try and learn as I know I have to take over some day, but now? I can't lead a legitimate business the size of ours. I need to step back and be second in command, or whatever you want to call it."

Seeing how hard she was taking it, Hunter got up and said, "Come here." She stood and he embraced her again. "Don't be upset, sweetheart. You've not failed at anything and you have no reason to feel bad. I know that and the guys will all know that. It's a shit situation. Everything's been shit in one way or another since that bastard Reigns showed up here. The main things at this point are that we deal with this Johnson asshole, and then we worry about keeping everyone out of jail. We'll get through it though. I'll make sure of it. I love you."

"I love you too," Ronda said. She tried to fight off all of the negative emotions that she was feeling and focus on what had to be done. It wasn't about her, it was about Helmsley, her family and her people. "I'll do whatever I have to, Uncle Hunter. You know that."

* * *

Dwayne Johnson was enjoying a relaxing evening at home with his wife, Victoria. They were curled up together on a couch, watching a movie when her phone rang. As she was also his secretary, any calls made to his office were diverted to her cell outside of business hours. It was quite rare for it to actually happen, as pretty much everyone who might to contact him that urgently already had his own cell phone number.

"It's a call from the office," she told him as she looked at the display. "Strange, at this time of night."

"I'll take it," he said, clearly not pleased by the interruption. She handed the phone over and he answered the call. "Dwayne Johnson. Whatever it is, it better be good."

The woman's voice on the other end sounded slurred, like she had been drinking. When she identified herself, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Dwayne, I'm glad I managed to get you. This is Stephanie Helmsley. I think we can help each other with a mutual problem."


	13. Chapter 13

_Marina Heights Hotel_

If there had been anyone else in the office with Ronda they would have found the atmosphere very uncomfortable. Sitting at her desk, staring straight ahead, she was boiling inside. Rage, indignation, hurt, all competing to be the one to send her over the edge and make her drive right over to Dwayne Johnson's offices, storm into the building and blow his brains out.

Earlier in the day the inner circle had met at Hunter's and voted her uncle back into power and her back to her role as second in command. The vote had been unanimous. It shouldn't have, and hadn't surprised her, but it had hurt her pride. It felt like everyone was telling her that she wasn't good enough to lead. What hurt most was that it was true, and she knew it. Her own family's business, and she wasn't fit to run it. Hunter had of course been clear in saying that the reason he was taking back control wasn't due to any failing on her part. The words had been kind, but they had seemed a little hollow to her. She knew as well as everyone else that she could have done better with her limited time in charge.

Then there had been the vote on the new course of action that Hunter had proposed: shutting down the meth lab and making Helmsley a strictly legitimate business, as well as coming up with a plan to go to war with Dwayne Johnson and his people. While she accepted the wisdom of the idea, given the reasons behind it, she still felt like they were accepting a defeat of some kind, and that definitely wasn't in her nature. The very thought of it infuriated her. This time the vote hadn't been unanimous. Wade Barrett had voted against it, which was no great surprise as the meth lab was his pride and joy, not to mention that it was the reason that he was part of the organisation. Ronda had been very tempted to vote against the idea herself, and she had seen the same doubt on other faces at the table. As Hunter's right hand she was the first to vote, so she had felt like she had to say yes, not least because she knew it would have hurt her uncle to see her vote against him.

Right now, for the first time since she had returned from the army years before and taken the position as second in command, Hunter was out there conducting business without her literally or even figuratively by his side. She had just known it would be a bad idea for her to go to the meeting with The Ministry at which Hunter intended to purchase them a consignment of weapons. All it would have taken was one smart comment from The Undertaker or one of his men and she would have been off the deep end. Pleading illness, which she was sure her uncle hadn't bought, she'd let Shane go in her place and had headed back to the hotel to hopefully unwind.

It wasn't working.

This whole thing was the fault of the Reigns/Johnson family. If it hadn't been for them there would be no particular attention from the FBI on Warren City. There would have been no large number of murders. There would have been no reason for Melina Perez to start getting twitchy about being on Helmsley's payroll. Stephanie would never have been abducted, tortured and raped. In fact she would have been in the city right now, instead of hiding away in Barbados. One of the people Ronda was closest to had been driven away from her own home. And now Helmsley was being changed forever. No more meth production. It wasn't right. Hunter had built the empire from the ground up and was now being forced to change it.

When the phone on her desk began to ring, Ronda was tempted to snatch up the handset and smash the device to pieces, and then keep smashing until she was too exhausted to smash any more. Anything to relieve some of the anger without killing someone. It was only Lana's announcement from the doorway that prevented it.

"It's Mrs. Helmsley on the line."

That made Ronda feel a little better already. She hadn't talked with her aunt much since they'd left for Barbados. While it was true that she was closer to Hunter, she missed her aunt very much and worried about how her recovery was going every day. The timing of the call could hardly have been better to bring her back from the brink of snapping. She gestured for Lana to close the door and picked up the phone.

"Hey, Aunt Steph. How are you?"

"I'm okay, Ronda. How about you?" The voice sounded a lot more like the old Stephanie, which pleased Ronda a lot. The last few times they'd talked, her aunt had still sounded withdrawn, broken somehow. Leaving Warren City must really have done her some good.

"I'm okay. I heard you had an argument with Uncle Hunter. Are you alright?"

"That's actually why I called you. I'm glad Hunter told you about the argument, but I doubt he told you the whole truth about it. He was really angry with me. I'd never seen him so angry before. It was scary, honestly. I hated how we left things, so I flew back to Warren City this morning."

"You're here?" Ronda asked excitedly. "Where are you? Are you at the airport? I can come get you if you need me to."

"I'm not at the airport, Ron. I do want you to come and see me though, if you can. I need to talk to you about what happened between Hunter and I, and I think I need your help to make things right with him. I don't want to lose him, sweetheart."

Hearing her aunt sound so distraught as she brought up the possibility of her marriage failing pulled hard on Ronda's heartstrings. It was almost impossible to imagine her adopted family falling apart, but Stephanie seemed to believe it was a real possibility.

"What did you guys argue about? Surely he wouldn't leave you because you didn't want to come back? That would be insane. It doesn't sound like Uncle Hunter at all."

"Can you come meet me and we'll talk about it? Come alone too. I don't want any of Hunter's men letting on that I'm here if I decide I'm not ready to see him yet. You know how he'd get."

Seeing no reason not to agree, Ronda didn't hesitate. "Sure, I'll tell the fucking meatheads not to follow me. It'll make a nice change to be honest. It's like having three shadows sometimes. Where are you?"

Stephanie gave Ronda her location, a little known beauty spot on the outskirts of the city. It was somewhere they'd often enjoyed picnics when Ronda was younger. Simpler times, and she had to admit, happier times. The realisation hit her just how right Hunter had been the previous night: Helmsley were breaking themselves to earn money that they didn't even need. It was a profound moment for her; deciding that it was indeed time for things to change. Maybe it time to settle down with Shane? Maybe they might even have a child of their own?

"Ronda, are you there?" Stephanie asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm on my way now. I'll see you soon."

"See you soon, sweetheart."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Ronda, having succeeded in convincing her security detail not to follow her and that she didn't need a driver, pulled one of the trademark Helmsley SUVs off the main road and onto the gravel track that lead to the beauty spot which overlooked almost all of Warren City. Stephanie was standing there waiting, beside what had to be a rental car from the airport. Ronda parked the SUV, got out and walked over to her aunt. The smile on Stephanie's face was full of warmth, exactly the way that Ronda felt herself.

"Great to see you, sweetheart," Stephanie said as they embraced and shared a peck on the cheek.

"I missed you so much," Ronda said.

They pulled apart and Stephanie turned and gestured to the amazing view of the city, which was basking in warm sunlight. "Beautiful isn't it?"

"It is," Ronda agreed. She wasn't much for scenery, but she could damn sure survey the city with pride. "And it's all ours."

A familiar male voice came from behind them. "Interesting the way you put that, Ms. Helmsley."

Ronda spun around to face the person who had spoken. There was no reasonable explanation for why he would be here, especially with one of his security detail beside him pointing a pistol at her and Stephanie, or where the hell they had come from. She was wearing her shoulder holster as always, but there was no way she could go for it. "Johnson. What the fuck are you doing here?"

The customary beaming smile appeared. "Not Rock anymore? I thought we were going to be partners? No? Okay, I can live with that. Thank you, Stephanie, we can take this from here."

Ronda had no idea what was going on at all, but when she turned back to look at her aunt, her blood ran as cold as the look in Stephanie's eyes. This whole thing had been a trap. Stephanie had sold her out to Johnson, but in the name of God, why? What possible reason could her aunt have for wanting her dead? The pain of betrayal was like nothing she had ever felt before.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she managed to say.

"Sorry, Ronda," Stephanie said icily. "The truth is, adopting you was Hunter's idea, not mine. I didn't get much of a say in the matter. He wants to divorce me? Good luck to him, but I'm going to take his most precious thing from his first: his 'baby girl'." She turned her attention to Johnson. "She's always got a gun in her shoulder holster."

Ronda stood there dumbfounded. How could the last 19 years of her life have been a lie? How had she never seen any sign of hatred or resentment from her so-called aunt? It made no sense. If she was going to go down though, she wasn't going to do it begging, that was a certain fact. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.

Johnson's voice remained perfectly calm, just like always. "The gun please, Ms. Helmsley. Nice and slow. Toss it to me, if you'd be so kind, then I want to see your hands."

Ronda refused to even look at Stephanie again. She reached into her jacket and removed her pistol. "You're damn right my name is Helmsley. And you know who's going to kill all three of you worthless pieces of shit for this? Hunter _Helmsley_. The man I'm proud to call my family." She tossed her gun to Johnson, who caught it one handed. He checked that it was loaded and clicked the safety off.

"How touching."

"Wait," Stephanie said. She reached behind her back and pulled a pistol of her own out of the waistband of her suit pants and held it out for them all to see. "I made a quick stop at home earlier today. I thought you'd appreciate it, Mr Johnson. You know what this is? This is the gun that Hunter used to kill Roman. I thought you mind find it some kind of poetic justice or something, and I'd like to add my own personal touch too." She gestured to Ronda. "Although Hunter did it, it was her who pushed the idea to take him out."

"I'd have loved to do it myself," Ronda spat, not bothering to argue against the lie that Stephanie had just told. What would have been the point?

Stephanie tossed the gun to Johnson, who caught it again and looked it for a moment. He seemed to appreciate the symbolism that she had pointed out. He handed Ronda's gun to the man beside him, who pocketed it without taking his eyes or aim off her.

"I'll leave you to it," Stephanie said and began to walk towards her car. "Goodbye, Ronda."

"Fuck you," Ronda snarled. "You think I'm afraid to die? Any of you? You'll all die too, real soon, and very painfully. Uncle Hunter will make sure of it." In a last act of defiance, she spat at Johnson. The saliva only just reached him, landing on one of his perfectly polished black loafers.

He glanced down at his foot and his lip curled in disgust. "Filthy fucking animal. I think I've heard enough," He looked back up, flicked the pistol's safety off and, aiming right between Ronda's eyes, pulled the trigger.

Stephanie didn't flinch at the sound of the gunshot behind her.


	14. Chapter 14

Ronda wished that her saliva had been able to travel far enough to hit Dwayne Johnson in the face. At least there was the small satisfaction of it landing on his shoe. She was going to go down defiantly, not begging for her life, that was for damn sure. The worst part was actually thinking about how hard it would be for Shane and her uncle Hunter to deal with her death. No, her murder. That's what this was going to be. An execution, in fact, and all thanks to the woman she had called an aunt for the past 19 years.

"Filthy fucking animal," Johnson said, looking down at her spit on his shoe. "I think I've heard enough," He looked back up, flicked the pistol's safety off and, aiming right between her eyes, pulled the trigger.

Ronda had closed her eyes, waiting for the end and wondering what would come next. She heard the shot. There was no impact, no pain. Then she heard the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor. Snapping her eyes open, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. She saw Johnson's bodyguard lying on the ground, on his side, with half of his head missing. Johnson was standing there, looking at the gun that he'd fired at Ronda, or rather tried to fire, with a puzzled expression on his face. The blood of his man had splashed up the side of his face. With a growl of frustration, he checked that he gun was loaded and the safety was off, then raised it again, pointed it at Ronda and pulled the trigger. The only response was a clicking sound. For some reason the gun didn't work.

Only then did Ronda start to switch back on. Whatever was happening, she was alive. She needed to run before Johnson picked up a gun from his fallen subordinate and used that to finish the job. Then it occurred to her to wonder why the man was on the ground with half of his head missing. Who had fired the shot? At that exact second, another shot rang out and Johnson pitched forward, falling to the ground face first. Blood was already staining the back of his suit jacket. Someone had shot him.

"Ronda, it's okay sweetheart. I'm so sorry I had to say all of that to you. I'm sorry. I had to make it convincing for him."

The words came from Stephanie, who had appeared at Ronda's side and wrapped her arms around her. The slow motion effect seemed to wearing off now for Ronda. She wondered if it was some kind of effect from thinking that her life had just been ended. Maybe she was close to going into shock? There was no time for that. Shaking her head to try and clear it, she mumbled, "What the fuck? Aunt Steph?"

"Yes, it's me. You're okay. No one's going to hurt you."

Ronda hugged her aunt for a moment, and it finally brought her fully back to her senses. "Jesus Christ, a bit less realism next time, okay?"

"He's still alive, Mrs Helmsley. Do you want to finish it?"

Ronda's head snapped around in the direction of the new voice, thinking that it was familiar somehow. It was. "Camila?" she gasped. "What the fucking hell are you doing here?" The question was born purely of shock as the answer was obvious. Camila had an assault rifle in her hands, from which the two shots had been fired. She had already kicked the guns away from the fallen men, although one of them was very obviously dead.

"My job, Ms Helmsley. Sorry I couldn't be completely honest with you before."

"I thought you were a fucking maid?"

"I would have been, unless someone tried to make a move on the mansion again. Your aunt and uncle wanted someone close by, just in case."

"But your story checked out," Ronda blurted out. "My guys followed you. You live with your kids, with no money, just like you said."

"Army vets often don't come home to much, Ms Helmsley. Can we talk about this later?"

Stephanie had pulled away from Ronda when Camila first spoke, and walked over to the Hispanic woman. "Do you have it?" she asked.

"Right here," Camila said, pulling a pistol out of a holster at her hip. She handed it to Stephanie, who walked over to Dwayne Johnson, who had managed to roll to his front. He was spluttering and coughing up blood, a sure sign that Camila's shot would be fatal. It was going to be academic.

"That wasn't the gun that my husband used to kill your piece of shit cousin," Stephanie hissed at her fallen adversary. "And if you're wondering why it didn't fire? Camila ground down the firing pins. Now, this right here? _This_ is the gun that Hunter used that night. Like I said, poetic justice."

Having killed more than her fair share of people, Ronda knew better than to expect some smart ass last words from Johnson. That was the kind of thing that happened in movies, not real life. Real life was a lot simpler: Stephanie pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger, putting a large hole in his forehead. Her aunt seemed to take no particular satisfaction in the killing, merely looking at Ronda and saying, "I think we should get out of here."

"I'll drive," Camila said, jogging over to Stephanie's rental car.

Ronda and Stephanie walked over to the car, side by side. Ronda had never admired her aunt more than she did at that moment. She had back fought against everything that Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner had done to her so that she could return to Warren City and settle the Helmsley score personally. "I love you, Aunt Steph."

"I love you too, Ron. Don't ever doubt that. You and Hunter are the two most important people to me."

Reaching the car, the climbed into the back and Camila took off, heading towards the city. Ronda took out her phone and said, "I'd better call Uncle Hunter. We voted to shut down the meth lab. There are guys working on it now. He's going to have to make sure our security is right on point in case of reprisals, and he's going to need to call Perez and tell her about those two bodies. If the feds weren't coming before, they will be now. Everyone better have their asses covered."

Stephanie was staring out of the window at the vast expanse of the city. Coming back had been a very difficult thing for her to do, but she had needed to make things right with Hunter after their furious argument and convince him that she really did love both him and Ronda. Using the argument as a basis for the story that she'd told Dwayne Johnson had seemed like a plan that was bound to work, and so it had. Putting Ronda in that situation had been hard, but it had been worth it. Johnson was dead, and with that so was the threat from the Reigns family; this time for good.

"Don't worry about Perez," she mumbled, to herself as much as to Ronda. "She's a smart woman. Feds or not, meth lab or not, this is our city. And it always will be."

"Fucking right," Ronda agreed as she waited for her uncle to answer her call. "By the time the feds show up, Uncle Hunter was have us looking as pure as the driven snow."

By the time the car was making its way through the heavy traffic in the centre of the city, plans were already being put in place. When, rather than if the FBI showed up and started digging into Melina Perez and into Helmsley there would be nothing for them to find.

END

* * *

 _Author's note:_

 _The first chapter of the series' third story has now been published. It is called Covert Ops, and it can be found on my profile. Enjoy!_


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